Falling Tolerance
by Dante Alighieri1308
Summary: "You're a Razor Back, Ben." I said with venom in my voice, "Nobody wants to be seen with you." He shook violently, filled with rage. "Then why are you hanging out with me?" he spat back. I paused, "Because I'm even worse then you. And I need a friend, just like you do." Slight A/U, follows entire first season.
1. They're More Like Pins then Razors

_I just got into Falling Skies this morning and I knew I had to write something about the show. It's great and so far I love all the episodes. So I made one for Ben, though it will be told through the perspective of somebody else most of the time. This guy has his own back story and own personal demons to deal with. The story may go a little A/U, so be ready for that._

**_DISCLAIMER: I DO NOT OWN FALLING SKIES OR ANY OF THE CHARACTERS IN THE SHOW. I ONLY OWN THE CHARACTER'S NOT FEATURED IN THE SHOW. ALL CREDIT GOES TO TNT._**

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><p><strong>Chapter 1 Their More Like Pins then Razors<strong>

**The Cafeteria**

"I'm telling you Cid! The sooner we get those… those razor backs out of here the better!" My uncle whispered fiercely, "And not just Mason's kid, I mean all of them! Even the ones that lost their razors."

"James cut that out! You know I hate that term!" My aunt Cindy said, her dirty blonde hair shaking with her head in disgust. I tried to block out the voices of my new family and focus on my food. It was half cooked however and I wasn't that interested. Nobody was judging by the looks of disinterest and my younger cousin moving her food around on her tray.

"What term? Razor backs?" Uncle James asked oblivious.

"Yes!" Aunt Cindy said frustrated, "Are we now some sort of Nazi group that profiles those poor children based on their unfortunate fate!"

"Oh come on Cid! This isn't anything like the Nazi's paranoid ramblings. Those 'poor children' were living with the enemy! I even heard that they found them sleeping underneath one of those four leg bastards!" Uncle James protested, seemingly disgusted by any thought of sympathy for the kids.

"Wouldn't be surprised if they were doing more than just sleeping under them…" my cousin Terry said into his cup, though loud enough for the table to hear. My aunt shot him a stern look and then returned her gaze to her husband.

"You see what you're doing James?" Aunt Cindy said. Uncle James just shrugged his shoulders at his wife.

"I'm telling them the truth of the matter. Those razor backs will betray us the second they get. They probably were getting some from their overlords." Terry smiled, happy that his fathered agreed with his sick joke. It was Aunt Cindy's turn to look repulsed. I smiled to myself.

'_A little late for a divorce.'_ I thought to myself. I don't know why I'm thinking such bad thoughts, but recently I have been more than usual. Maybe it's just cabin fever or something. Probably the 'or something'.

"I thought they had six legs Daddy." My cousin Bethany said, looking up from her over mashed mashed potatoes, if that's even possible. Uncle James' hostile look evaporated into one of caring, the way a father _should_ look, as he turned to his daughter and embraced her.

"Doesn't matter how many legs they have. All that matters is that they can kill us." He said, kissing his daughter on the cheek. It took everything I had not to laugh at that stupid statement. My uncle was not a leader, which is probably why the Boston police force turned him down for a command position and he spent most of his time as a patrol cop. After the aliens came he thought he could get a leading position in the resistance.

He couldn't and on his first patrol as a lowly grunt he almost killed a fellow fighter. Now he spends his time bad mouthing the people who defend us, scratching his unkempt black beard, and refusing to have his precious son serve in the resistance force. "God forbid something happen to me, I need my son safe. Only he can carry on the family name!" He told us one day, when we both asked to join the fight.

When I asked to go out and fight, however, he said to go ahead and waste my life. He couldn't give a shit about me. But my aunt stopped me from joining, saying that my parents wouldn't have wanted me to fight. Like she would know what my parents would have wanted, the only time she talked to them was during Thanksgiving, and even that was forced.

"Terry, Bethany, listen to me." Aunt Cindy said, leaning in closer to us so they could hear her over the clamor of the cafeteria, "Those children may be different in their appearance, but they are the same on the inside as you and I."

"Not likely." Uncle James muttered. Aunt Cindy gave him another stern glare, her most powerful weapon in the arsenal. For once I had to agree with my uncle, who knows what's latched onto their spine still, underneath their skin. So technically their not the same.

But nobody would want to hear that so I didn't say anything and just listened to Aunt Cindy's lame speech about respecting other people. "You have to treat them with respect. They have been through a lot and they don't deserve your father's scorn. Understand?" Both children nodded and I nodded as well. I liked to feel as though I was part of this screwed up family in a way, they're all I have left. To even attempt to deny their existence or pretend I don't know them would be my first steps toward insanity.

"Even so, I want you kids to stay away from them. Understand that?" Uncle James said, pointing a finger at his children. Both of them nodded while Aunt Cindy sighed in frustration. I chuckled; Uncle James always undermined his wife in front of us all the time. It's too bad too because she's a much better leader than her husband.

My chuckle was too loud as Uncle James noticed my existence for the first time today. He gave me a death glare. "The same goes for you. I won't have you putting yourself in harm's way." I snorted at that, remembering how he said he would be fine with me running off to fight. No doubt Aunt Cindy had remained him of the promise they made my parents.

"Can I be excused, I need some air." I said, speaking now for the first time. It was usually the only thing I said at our "family meals", and it was becoming my catch phrase around my extended family. My uncle nodded, forgetting what he just asked of me. My aunt however did not.

"Promise us Michael." She said, moving her hand towards my arm to grab it, but retracted it at the last second. Sometimes she acted like I was plagued. And why shouldn't she? I was the reason her brother was dead.

"I promise."

**The Library**

The Library was the best place for me to go, no matter what the time of day.

It was quiet here, just as it usually was. Nobody had time to come to the library except for the minors and some of the elderly people. But the kids would prefer to play outside or hang out with their families than read, and the elderly even seemed to have things to do now and days.

As for the rest of the minors, some of them were joining the fight and spent hours training outside. Those that didn't fight formed their own cliques and their spent hours prattling on about useless information that had nothing to do with their current situation. I didn't join a clique because Terry was part of those and I didn't want to spend more time with my cousin then I had too, though I was friends with people in cliques and sometimes went to their 'social gatherings' as they called them.

I wanted to be part of the fight; to train to fight the _six_ legged bastards from God knows where. Unlike many of the teens joining the resistance, I have fired a gun before. A pistol and a shotgun.

I did miss all my shots but one with the pistol, but my shotgun blast did connect with some skitter flesh, blowing it back a couple of feet. I went flying also in the opposite direction from the blast recoil and my arms were on fire for the next twenty or so minutes. But that didn't matter! I had fired guns and seen people die. I was already several steps ahead of many of the recruits! But instead I was forbidden to fight by my aunt and uncle so they could feel good about themselves.

'_Promise me… Promise me that you'll look after Michael… that you'll keep him alive.'_

I threw the book I was reading down the aisle of books I was sitting in, rage filling up inside of me as I remember the promise my parents made my aunt and uncle take before they were killed. Before they were killed because of me.

I heard footsteps coming towards me and I buried my face in my hands. The last thing I need is some old guy telling me to 'watch the binding' or to 'stop making so much noise'. Something stupid like that.

Instead a kid came around the corner, bending down to pick it up. He was teen with messy hair that I guess some could call dirty blonde. A much different color than my dark brown hair, though mine did look just as messy. He was fidgeting slightly like he was afraid to be here.

"Did you throw this?" He asked, I nodded. "My dad wouldn't be happy with that. He loves books."

"Whoopi fucking doo." I responded, pulling out some random book and opening it. I just wanted this kid to go away. I came here to get away from people, not engage in one on one conversation. Unfortunately the kid didn't seem to realize that. He sat down across from me, staring at me. I tried to ignore him but finally I had to say something.

"Do you want something?" I asked, not rudely but with a little bit of an edge.

"I… I just wanted to know if you wanted to talk." He said unsure of himself. I raised my eyebrows, laughing lightly.

"We're in a library. Shush!" I said, turning my attention to the book which was talking about the parts of the human heart. Boring overall.

"I just thought that maybe you wanted somebody to hang out with." The kid said again. I looked up at him.

"What would give you that idea?" I responded a nastily. He shrugged before responding softly.

"I just see you around here, in the hallways and stuff. You usually aren't hanging out with people and I thought you might need a friend."

"'Might need a friend'?" I said laughing again, "What are you? Who are you? Just leave me alone, ok?" He looked at me for a little while longer and then sighed. He got up began turning slowly away when I saw it. The spikes, the razors.

He was a Razor Back.

He must have seen the shock on my face because his face become sad, as if he had hoped I wouldn't react with disgust or horror like so many other people probably had. "I'll just leave." He said, standing up fully.

"Their more like pins." I said, stopping him in his tracks. He turned around to face me.

"Excuse me?" he asked.

"I said they look more like pins than razors. People should start calling you guys 'pin backs' instead of 'razor backs'." His face tightened into an angry glare, but I just shrugged, "Are you sure it's me that needs the friend?"

I knew I had gone too far there. His face seemed to slope and he moved away slowly. I hit my head against the back of some books behind me. I don't know why I said that, but guilt began to well up inside of me.

'_God Damn it!'_ I thought, throwing down my lame book and I moved quickly to catch up with the guy. "Hey! Wait!" He turned around to look at me, his face still sad and vacant of expression. I remember what Aunt Cindy said this morning and then what Uncle James said. _'To hell with them!'_ I thought.

"Listen I didn't mean that. I'm Michael." I said, sticking out my hand for him to shake. He looked at it and for a second I thought he was going to swat it away, but he put his hand in mine and we shook.

"I'm Ben. Do you have a last name?" he asked.

"It's… It's not important." I said. "Do you have one?"

"Is that important?" He asked coolly. I shrugged at that.

"Touché." I said. Free of my guilt a devious idea came to my mind.

"Hey, do you want to come to a social gathering with me?" I asked casually. He raised his eyebrows in shock.

"Um… what? Seconds ago you were just insulting me."

"I was giving some advice. Next time tell the jerk who is actually insulting you that they are pins in your back and not razors. Those don't look like they could cut anything."

"You'd be surprised." Ben said. "I've already ripped a ton of clothes and my bed several times." He laughed and I laughed a little also, though it was forced.

"So what do you say?" I asked, wanting to move this conversation along.

"This isn't like a date or anything?" He asked slowly, wondering what prank I was pulling.

"I'm as straight as an arrow." I said.

"I think those can bend though." He said, to which I sighed in frustration. He's not going to win many friends with that attitude and those pins weren't helping his chances either. Poor bastard.

"The gathering is tomorrow night at six. You can invite anybody you want. If you know any good looking girls they can come too." I turned to leave but he called out a question before I could leave.

"I have some brothers, can they come?" I sighed again in frustration.

"Sure they can. I just hope they aren't as annoying as you." He looked confused again and I walked away back to my reading place, sitting down on top of the heart book. I pulled it out from underneath me and opened it again.

'_Maybe one more chance, eh Michael?'_ I thought as I reopened the book and diverted my attention away from the pin back.

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><p><em>Thanks for reading. I don't know how many more chapters there will be, but I'll try to be quick about writing them. <em>

_Please **REVIEW**, I enjoy hearing from the readers for ideas and praise. It helps me keep going._


	2. Manipulation is Such an Ugly Thing

_Thanks for staying tune, and I hope that you will continue to do so even with the season over. I can't believe that it's already done! And that it's going to be an entire year until the next season! They should have tried to time the second season for December and January, would of made the wait more bearable. _

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><p><strong>Chapter 2 Manipulation is Such an Ugly Thing<strong>

"_Let's go Michael!" My Dad yelled, struggling to get luggage onto the lawn in front of our house. My Mom was already outside, worry all over her face as she stared at the horizon, looking at the hundreds of tiny, drone space ships over Boston. The moved about like insects, gathering into huge groups and then dispersing into all directions, scanning everything below them._

_I ran out the door and helped my Dad gather the last of our luggage into a pile. My Dad gazed at his watch in distress. "They should have been here five minutes ago!" he said angrily, staring down the street both ways. _

"_They have an RV, Daryl." My Mom said to comfort my Dad. "It takes a little longer."_

"_Which is why I told that ass James to leave earlier!" My Dad complained, "But he said not to worry about it and that he would get there here on time." He looked at his watch again, trying to hide his concern. My Mom wasn't doing as well, biting her finger nails, looking up at the ships in the sky._

"_If he isn't here in the next five minutes, we are leaving on our own! We'll just have to leave some stuff behind!" He turned to my Mom, who was transfixed by the ships in the sky. My Dad looked at her confused. "Honey? What is it?"_

"_The… the ships! Look!" my Mom said, pointing to the sky. We all looked as the ships grew tighter together, seeming to light up brighter and brighter as they were brought closer together. After about ten seconds the light was so bright, it was as if we were staring at the sun itself. _

"_Turn away NOW!" my dad shouted, grabbing both of us by the shoulders and pulling us closer to him. There was a blast of sound and a loud ringing in my ears as I felt myself collapse._

"Michael?" I heard a voice call to me. "Michael you ok?" I blinked a couple of times and looked up at who was addressing me. It was that razor back and some other boy. Well, boy wouldn't be the right word. He looked more like a young adult, though he still had the facial features and soft skin of an early teenager. An almost baby face kid, I hate those types of kids. Probably just because they get the girls easier.

"You finally showed." I said, jumping to my feet to stand toe to toe with Ben while studying his friend out of the corner of my eye. "I see you took my offer and brought a friend."

"Actually this is my brother, Hal. Hal, this is Michael. Michael, Hal." Ben said, making quick introductions. Hal held out his hand to shake and I raised mine to shake his. I studied him with new found interest as he did me. If I had seen these two together from a distance I would never have guessed that they were related. They both had different body types, different hair color, and by the looks, a difference in the amount of physical activity they did. The only thing they had in common was the color of their eyes.

There was one thing bothering me about Hal though. "You look familiar. Have we met?" I asked. Hal shrugged.

"Don't know. I meet a lot of people and I don't remember all of them." He said nonchalantly. He smiled slightly; he was kind of cocky, but not overbearing. I think I could get use to him. "So, it was nice of you to invite my brother to this party." I raised an eyebrow at him, knowing exactly where this was going. Ben looked slightly uncomfortable as his brother continued, "you just hand out invitations to anybody?"

Scratch what I said earlier, this guy was overbearing. If I were Ben I wouldn't have invited him, he would screw up any chance of Ben developing any real friends. Somehow I think Ben had no choice in inviting him. Older brother privileges or something like that probably.

"Not to just anybody," I said, thinking of what best to say. Naturally I ignored that and thought of a better way to see what kind of person this Hal was. "But I thought having a razor back at the _social gathering_ would be fun."

The air grew dead around us and Hal gave me a death glare. For a second I felt bad about what I said, and then mentally kicked myself. Ben's got his brother, doesn't matter what I say.

Finally Hal said something, "You hate people who have been returned to normal after being harnessed." I snorted at the question and responded easily.

"It's easier to say 'razor back'. And no, I'm not. But I won't lie; I want him here to annoy my son of a bitch cousin who does hate them. So I invited him to mess my cousin."

Ben's face visible fell and Hal looked like he would hit me. I'm pretty sure he would have if a young boy hadn't come running up and stepped in between the three of us. He had messy blonde hair and looked to be about ten years old. He tugged on Hal's coat to get his attention.

"Hal, Dad said I could come if I hung out with the younger kids." He turned to me now, "You do have younger people at this party?" I stared at this kid in confusion, stuff coming together in my mind. _'Another brother? What is this?'_

"Yes, we have a kids section for people your age." I answered, now staring at all the brothers. Suddenly it came to me, I heard about these three from all the gossip filled people in the lunch room and at school. Now I knew why Hal had looked familiar! And now I understood the razors or pins in Ben's back.

"Holy Shit!" I exclaimed shocked, though my face my not of shown it. "Your Tom Mason's kids aren't you?" They all nodded as my mouth dropped open in shock.

"Language!" The youngest Mason brother said, pointing at me. I gave him a glare and he tucked his finger away in his pocket. I turned to Ben, angry. "When we were talking about our last names, would it have killed you to say what your last name was?" Ben looked at me, also angry.

"You didn't give me your last name!" I groaned in anger.

"That's because my last name doesn't mean anything! 'Mason' is a last name that everybody knows and respects!"

"So you'll respect my brother just enough because he has 'Mason' for his last name?" Hal said angrily. I groaned, not at Hal, but at myself. I had really dug myself a hole with those stupid comments about "razor backs". I even told Ben they looked like pins, not razors!

An idea came to me, an idea that was infinitely better than the one I had about just annoying that brat Terry. But I would need time to develop it. Right now, I needed to at least recover _some_ ground with the Mason boys.

"Look, I'm sorry. I'm just… I'm just like this. My attitude I mean." I tried to explain without giving to much away. "I'm sorry about insulting you, and I completely respect what your father does and I guess what you do Hal. Now, if you still want to come to the party you can. You don't even have to hang out with me." The boys were looking at me and then back at each other. Damn sibling telepathy.

I nodded at each of them and then walked away, trying to seem like I didn't care what they thought. Ben called out to me though before I disappeared completely, "I thought it was a social gathering, not a party." I turned towards him and looked him over again. He had a small smile on his face.

"It can be whatever you want it to be." I responded simply before turning around and entering the party.

**Later**

'_The party really isn't much_,' I reflected, sitting in a seat on the edge of the teen party. With no real music, punch, or even alcohol, people were reduced with standing around and talking. There were some snacks, true, but nothing that was that great. Canned beans should never be a snack item at a party.

Still, it didn't look like people were too badly affected by having to talk to one another instead of getting high or drunk. There was plenty to gossip about at John F. Kennedy High School. People talked about serious stuff such as food supplies, education, what was happening with the skitters, who they were before the invasion. And of course, people talked about ridiculous things, such as what the new clothing trends were, how they could organize a sports team or a debate team, and of course, who was dating who.

Just because the world ended, didn't mean that crazy, stupid, teen love had to end as well.

I noticed that my cousin Terry seemed to be quite knowledgeable in the art of seduction. Already he had girls fawning over him, seemingly ready to bend to his every whim. I pang of jealously rose through my body, but I quickly buried them down. I had other things to worry about.

Tired of being the outcast of the party, I got up to leave. That meant wading through the throng of teens, but I thought I could move quickly enough through that I didn't have to deal with anybody, especially Terry. Before I could make it to the other side of the room, I heard two words that caught my attention.

Razor Back.

I stopped in my tracks and moved closer to the group of people talking about them. I wasn't surprised to hear my cousin's voice. It would be him who would be talking bad about things that he didn't fully understand.

"I'm just saying, why are they allowed to walk around in the open? Where was the thinking in that? I say, if they still have the spikes in them, they should be locked up until the spikes disappear or, you know, just keep them there." I scoffed, no doubt that was good ol' Uncle James speaking through his son. It was scary how much crap Terry could swallow.

I heard some people protesting that train of thought, but they wouldn't get anywhere. Terry was a lot of things, and one of those things was charismatic. He would have them eating out of his hand by the end of the night. I just hope Hal isn't around, probably kill Terry. Then again, maybe that isn't so bad.

I was outside the party area when I saw somebody sitting down outside the school. I recognized the clothing as Ben's. Slowly I began to approach him, not wanting to startle him. He turned around and saw me coming, however, and gave a sad smile.

"Hey." He said simply. I gave a small smile and said 'hey' back, before sitting down next to him. It was silent for a little bit as neither of us knew what to say. God, I wish I was better with interacting with people. Too late now though.

"Did you enjoy the party?" I said weakly, Ben looked away from the stars in the sky and looked at me. He bit his lower lip, clearly trying not to offend me. "The truth, please Ben."

He sighed, leaning back a little bit. "It was ok." He said, looking as if he wanted to add more. He didn't however, deciding to stay silent.

"Until you heard people talking about 'razor backs'." I supplemented. Ben looked at me and then slowly nodded his head. I sighed dramatically, "Well I hope Hal isn't still in there." Ben laughed a little at that. "No. He, uh, he went to bring Matt back to our room. Jimmy doesn't quite count in the 'kid group', ya know?"

"I don't know I'm afraid." I said, "He's one of the fighters, isn't he?" Ben nodded his head. "Lucky him." I muttered.

"You want to fight?" Ben asked, a bit shocked. I laughed at that.

"Do I not look like the fighter type?" I asked, with sarcasm in my voice. Ben was polite and didn't respond, probably out of fear of saying something wrong. This maybe the longest conversation he's had with someone other than his family since the invasion began. "Don't worry about it. I know what I look like."

It was true, I wasn't exactly fighting material. I was skinner than Ben, though a bit taller, and had a few red marks on my face from pimples that had begun to disappear. Everything about me suggested Anti-Fighter, though I wanted nothing more than to fight. I didn't care about my life, and I couldn't think about anybody who would if I died. My aunt and uncle would only be sad because they failed to keep their word, which they would get over in about an hour.

"I didn't mean it like that." Ben said, trying to reconcile himself. I held up a hand.

"It's fine." I insisted. Ben was quiet after that, and another awkward silence ensued. "Do you want to fight?" I asked. It came out before I had any time to really consider what I was asking. Why did he need to fight? Two of his family members were fighting, one of them second in command of the 2nd Massachusetts. His father probably wouldn't even let him fight.

Ben was seriously considering the question though, and responded after a minute with a pretty neutral answer. "I don't know, if I have to I will. But I don't know if my dad will allow it." I nodded my head in understanding, "So you really want to fight?" He asked me again.

"Yes." I responded confidently.

"If you want, I can get you to meet with my dad. Maybe he can get you into the fight." Ben said, his voice rising with eagerness.

"You think you could do that?" I asked, shocked. Ben nodded his head.

"Ya, my dad is the kind of guy who will listen to whatever people have to say. I'm sure he'll give you the time of day to speak your mind. If Jimmy can fight, why can't you?"

"That sounds great!" I said, with equal eagerness.

"Great!" Ben said. "I'll ask him if you two can meet, and then I can get back to you! Alright?"

"Ya thanks." My watch began to beep, symbolizing my alarm going off. "I should get going, my aunt and uncle will be wondering where I am. You want to tag along?"

"Nah, I'm going to sit here for a while I think." Ben said. I got up and began to walk away when I turned back around to say one last thing. "Hey Ben!" I said, he turned around to look at me, "I'm sorry about what I said earlier. I… I don't know why I did that. I've just been dealing with some stuff."

Ben looked at me for a little and nodded his head, "It's ok. I… maybe we could hang out some other time. Just to do something fun."

I smiled and nodded, "That sounds great Ben. Talk later then?" Ben nodded and I turned to walk around, my footsteps echoing down the corridor as I walked. As I rounded the corner I smiled to myself.

"And that's how you manipulate someone." I said, giggling to myself as I entered my family's room.

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><p><em>Hope you enjoyed, I plan to pick up the action pretty soon so things will get more intense.<em>

_Yes, Michael is a bit of a jerk, but Ben balances him out and his tragic past has also transformed him into this cold, closed off person. _

_Thanks for reading! and please **REVIEW!**_


	3. My New Bipolar Friendship

**Chapter 3** **My New Bipolar Friendship**

The air was muggy in our room and smelled rather bad from B.O. Some idiot had decided to open up the blinds in our room before everybody woke up so I was blinded the second I woke up. I shielded my eyes and began rubbing them vigorously to clear the blurriness out of them.

When I was finally able to see I noticed that I was the only one in the room. I sighed, realizing that I had slept in late again and missed the best parts of breakfast. Now I would be stuck with the scraps, and there was no microwave to heat up any of that cold glob that they no doubt made for breakfast.

'_That's the life in the 2__nd__ Massachusetts.'_ I thought glumly.

I dressed slowly, my body still aching from sleeping on the ground. I heard that some of the soldiers actually got cots to sleep in, guess badass Captain Weaver didn't think the civilians important for comfort. I remembered learning about ancient civilizations and the privileges cultures gave to their fighters. I also remembered learning how the fighters would crush the civilians if they got into the mood of protesting and demanding more rights and stuff for them. The former was happening right now, and I shivered at the thought of the latter happening.

'_Another reason to become a fighter.'_ I thought to myself, stretching out my back. The room that I was sleeping in with my family had two other families in it as well, leaving little room for comfort. With thirteen people sleeping in one room, comfort was a luxury item. The bed rolls were distributed evenly enough, but anything past that was fought over between families. In the end, our family has the least items out of the three families in room 117. With only a thin blanket and a rather hard pillow to sleep on, any sleep was welcome.

I had heard that some people who had gotten a science room to sleep in had tried to put the big desks together to form mini beds. It was ok for the first couple of nights, but people continued waking up on the ground, usually with broken bones or dark purple bruises. The idea was abandoned after Dr. Glass come through and told the civilians that she couldn't keep treating people for bruises and broken bones. She was only supposed to do that for the fighters, not the civilians.

I exited the room and began making my way towards our make shift cafeteria. I was still blurry eyed when they handed me my grey porridge and for a second I thought it had hairs in it. Turning around I looked around the cafeteria to find a place to sit.

Most places were empty since people had already begun their daily chores, though there were a few stragglers. I notice Terry in the back, with a wild grin on his face. He was talking with some friends who looked equally happy. No doubt they had made it to second base last night.

My search stop when I saw Ben, sitting alone and away from the main group. His head was down looking at his porridge, though he wasn't that interested in it judging by how much was left. I began walking towards him, sitting down across from him.

"They'll start to talk about you. And not in a good way." Ben said in acknowledgement, nodding his head towards everybody else in the cafeteria. Ben's back was to the main body of people, so I got a pretty good view of the hall. He was right; most people were staring at us now. They were muttering among themselves softly, no doubt happy to have something new to talk about. I noticed that Terry was staring hard at me, his face warping into disapproval. I smiled and nodded at him, returning my attention to Ben.

"At least I'll have somewhat of a reputation when I talk to your dad." I said, taking a spoonful of porridge. I gagged and spit it back out, wiping my mouth and taking a big sip of water. Ben smiled at me, "What?" I asked.

"Nothing. Listen, I talked to my dad. And while he doesn't agree with someone as young as you fighting, he's willing to hear you out." I nodded, very happy right now. I had not expected for things to be that easy. I thought that Ben would come back with a 'no' and I would have to persuade him to try again.

"That's great! When can I meet him?" I asked, pushing away the porridge.

"This afternoon. He's agreed to talk with you during his patrol break in our room."

"Your room?" I asked confused. Ben shrugged, "He doesn't want it getting out that's he's letting kids join. He wants to check you out first to see if you'll be like Jimmy or if your just some glory hound."

I nodded in understanding. No doubt parents would be furious to hear the army was taking children, though my aunt and uncle wouldn't care that much. Well, maybe they would if I made it. It would be seen as an insult to Uncle James, which I saw as a bonus to this entire situation.

"Your dad's pretty cool to agree to meet me." I said, deciding to make small talk. It was only morning, and the days were long. "How'd you persuade him to meet with me?"

"I don't know. He's probably just happy to have more volunteers, even if they are kids. Or…" Ben stopped himself, looking away from me and rubbing the back of his neck nervously.

"Or what?" I asked. Ben looked back at me, his face sad again.

"Or maybe he's doing this for me because he's glad that I have a friend here." It was silent after that since I really didn't know what to say after that. "We are friends, right?" Ben asked. I was taken aback by the question and was unsure of what to say to that. After seven months of having nobody that I could call a 'friend', the concept seemed so foreign to me. Thinking it over, I answered.

"Ya, we are." Ben looked visibly relieved to hear that, and I felt pretty good about myself too. Maybe calling Ben a friend wouldn't be so bad. "And I think that your dad's interested in volunteers, not looking to make you feel good about having a friend." I mentally kicked myself, realizing how mean that sounded, but Ben didn't seem to mind.

"I bet your right. Do you have a father here?" he asked.

"No, him and my Mom died when the skitters first got here. I live with my Aunt and Uncle now." I answered simply, with no emotion what so ever.

"Oh," Ben said startled, "I'm sorry to hear that. You don't sound too happy about that."

"Ya, having your parents killed right before your eyes doesn't really leave you to happy." I answered bitterly.

"What? Oh God!" Ben said shocked, "No I didn't mean it like that!"

"Now that we're talking about parents, I hear that your Mom died. I'm also sorry about that, you don't seem too happy about that!" I knew I was speaking way too harshly to my new friend, but the memories were flashing back into my head. My parents shouting, sounds of guns being fired, a horrible screeching sound from one of those creatures.

"I just meant that you didn't sound happy about living with your Aunt and Uncle! And don't talk about my mom! I don't want to talk about her alright?" Ben responded, equally as angry.

"Fine!" I said, getting ready to get up from the table. I was cut short from doing that when Terry and some of his idiot friends came up behind Ben. They all still had that goofy look on their faces, making them truly look like idiots.

"Hanging out with the razor backs now Michael?" Terry asked, taking a seat next to Ben. Ben began to move away from him, but one of Terry's friends took a seat on the other side of Ben and one stood behind Ben, boxing him into his seat.

"It's just 'razor back' since there is only one of them here Terry." I responded coolly. Ben looked extremely uncomfortable, trying not to touch anybody around him. _'Bad move Ben.'_ I thought. Terry was thinking the same thing because he encouraged his posy to move closer to him. Ben seemed to be shrinking farther and farther away from sight.

Part of me wanted to leave Ben as he was. He's a big boy; he can take care of himself. But on the other hand, Ben was the first person to really acknowledge and care about my existence in the past seven months. I began to feel bad about manipulating Ben and thought that I owed him something at least.

"Hey, if you guys want to be close to each other, why don't you all go to the bathroom? Try to get in one of those handicap stalls, it has the most room." Terry looked at me, moving away from Ben. His friends also moved away from Ben like trained dogs following their master. Knowing Terry, that's no doubt exactly what he had reduced them too.

"Dad's not going to be happy to hear that you're hanging out with a razor back."

I scoffed at that, "He's your dad, not mine. I don't give a damn what he says."

"You should dumbass. He's been looking out for you since your old man got blown to pieces and your mom bled out." Terry said. Rage built up inside of me again from somebody mentioning my parents. But I controlled myself, not wanting to give Terry the satisfaction of knowing that he messed with my mind.

"I would have been fine without him." I muttered.

"Sure you would of. You're so big and scary, you could of scared off any skitter that came near you." Terry said, giggling like a little school girl.

'_I could of, but your dad's stench kept them away.'_ I wanted to say, but didn't. Terry was losing interest and soon got up and left, followed by his friends. Ben began to relax again.

"Claustrophobic?" I asked. Ben shook his head.

"I'm sorry about your parents." He said.

"Don't worry about it."

"You're rather strange, you know that?" Ben said with a perplexed look on his face.

"How's that?" I said, raising an eyebrow.

"Well we were just fighting before they came, and then you defended me from them."

"Don't look so star struck Ben. I did it because I can't stand Terry." I lied, I did it because Ben's my friend.

"Terry?"

"My cousin." I replied, no doubt my face growing darker as I did so.

"That's your… That?" Ben said shocked. I nodded.

"Ya, you'll find my new family isn't as loving as yours." Ben still looked shocked as to how family could hate each other so much. I didn't really feel like talking about it, but that didn't stop Ben.

"If you ever want to… you know… talk about what happened with your parents, I'm here you know." Ben said that with such compassion that I had to laugh. He just met me a day ago, and now he's ready to talk to me like he's known me my whole life.

"That's nice of you Ben. Maybe I'll take you up on your offer some day." I responded, not trying to sound too rude between fits of laughter. I pushed away the porridge and turned my attention to Ben. "Now, what do you want to do?"

"Sorry?" Ben said, surprised. I rolled my eyes.

"You said your dad would meet with me this afternoon. It's still early and I thought you said you wanted to hang out with me again. So let's do something!" It was Saturday which meant that we didn't have to go to school or have to worry about anything serious. The day was ours, and I was not about to spend it in that smelly room 117.

Ben seemed to light up at the thought of hanging out with somebody. "We could go back to the library, or try to get in on a soccer game." I nodded and smiled.

"Well let's go!"

**Later**

The day spent with Ben actually wasn't that bad. He was pretty tolerable and actually enjoyed some of the same stuff that I did before everything went to hell.

After talking for awhile, we went to play soccer, and after it become apparent that neither of us could play that well and everybody was staring at Ben, we took off to the library. We spent the next hour reading in silence, though it wasn't a bad silence.

Ben tapped me on the shoulder when it was time for me to meet his dad. We made small talk on the way there, going towards a part of the school that was usually only for fighters. It was a lot cleaner and move organized than where the civilians slept. Another perk of being a soldier I guess.

On the way there, we passed by the missing children's bulletin board. I noticed that a red hand print was in the middle of it, which gave the board an ominous look to it. Ben looked saddened by the board, looking at all those faces that would probably never be seen again. Then again, Ben looks sad about most things.

"Here it is." Ben said, pointing towards a room that was originally a social studies room. "My dad was a school teacher before the skitters came. So I guess it makes sense that he chose a social studies room."

I nodded, thinking that there must be one hell of a story as to how a school teacher is put second in command of a large resistance group. "Hey," I said, turning to Ben. "Thanks. I mean it. I know I'm not the most personable guy that you'll meet, and that's why it means a lot for you to do this for me."

"It's nothing." Ben tried to say modestly, but I wasn't going to have any of it.

"No, seriously. It _does_ mean a lot. It's ah… it's been a long time since anybody has gone out of their way to help me." I said, reminiscing on sour memories of Uncle James.

"Like I said, it was nothing." Ben said again, shuffling uncomfortably. Apparently he wasn't use to praise.

"Well, shall we go in?" I asked. Ben nodded his head, pulling out a key from his pocket.

"My dad's second in command," Ben explained, "Weaver wants us to have protection." He unlocked the door to a sharp click and put his hand on the knob. "Ready?"

For once I had no witty comment and simply nodded my head, my stomach turning in knots. The only thing that comforted me was the thought of Uncle James face when I told him that I met Tom Mason.

I guess I looked pretty idiotic when I walked in the room with a giant smile on my face.

* * *

><p><em>Thanks for all the support and reviews. Gives me great motivation to keep writing for Falling Skies. It's going to be a long year until the next season (what the hell were the producers thinking when they agreed to that?)<em>

_I make a point to respond to all my reviews that come in as non-anonymous. But since this review from _WhisperMaw_ just came in today and deals with something important, I'll answer it now (thanks for the review!)_

_To answer the question of romance in this story... I don't know. As we've all probably noticed, there is a real lack of female characters. Out of the the four lead female parts (Dr. Glass, Lourdes, Margaret, and Karen), only one of them could possibly (and I use that term losely) have a chance to date Ben and that would be Karen. Of course, she's with Hal and she's been harnessed so she's out of the question. The rest of them are not possible, unless they want to be branded pediphile (maybe minus Lourdes). If there would be a romance, it would have to be an OC character, and I'm trying to not drift to far from the main plot. So simply put, I don't know._

_I was planning on having the story continue at the same pace as the show, ex. having this story finish where season 1 does, but since it's going to be a **year** until season 2, I might make a A/U sequel if I get enough support. Seriously, a **YEAR?** I would of thought they would continue in the winter months, which would make a lot of sense and would make sure you wouldn't lose some of your viewers. An entire year though... they better be heavy on the promotional stuff._

_So with that said: **REVIEW!**_


	4. Heroes Die

**Chapter 4 Heroes Die**

The room was a whole lot different than the one I had, which makes me right about the whole 'special privileges to soldiers' thing. The room itself was pretty large, with only four cots lined along one side of the room. A divider lay in between all of them to provide the sleeper a bit of privacy, something that wasn't given to the civilians. In a room with grown and young men and women, it was awkward when I came time to change.

Mr. Mason was sitting behind a desk, lounging comfortably in the teacher's chair, looking right at me in my own chair. Ben had told me that he was a teacher, and he looked completely at ease sitting in his chair. He was no doubt sizing me up, so I thought I do the same to him.

If I had to guess who the military leader was out of a crowd of people, I would not have guessed Mr. Mason. He was a bit gaunt in figure, and that shaggy, unkempt beard made him look like a wild axe man instead of second in command of the 2nd Massachusetts. Still, there was an air around him that commanded respect. And from what I've heard, he deserves it. I still remember hearing how Mr. Mason dragged back a skitter to this school, beating it with nothing but a flash light and a sawed off shotgun.

'_Don't judge a book by its cover I guess.'_ I thought to myself. _'I hope he doesn't do the same thing.'_

Mr. Mason continued to stare at me, not aggressively but it was still aggravating. I felt like I was back home before the invasion and my father was looking me over to decide my punishment for some bad thing I did.

Finally, Mr. Mason spoke. "During the civil war, Confederate forces used children soldiers to defend their lands." He said slowly, as if he was getting ready for some long lecture. "The reasons were that one, they thought Union soldier would never harm children, two, they could work as very good scouts, and three, there were not enough adult men to hold the lines against the Union." He leaned forward in his chair, resting his arms on the desk in front of him. "Well as it turns out, all of that didn't work. Union soldiers did fire on the children, the children gave inaccurate reports, and most important of all the Confederate civilians took the use of children soldiers as a bad sign and morale went down considerably."

I nodded my head, understanding where he was going with this. "I see that you understand what I'm saying." Mr. Mason said, "If I let you join the fighters, then there will be a considerable outcry and people will start to get the wrong impressions."

"Or they could get the right ones." I said, which caused Mr. Mason raise an eyebrow, "It can show that people are willing to fight for this cause, to lay down their lives. Maybe it will give people hope, and encourage them to fight."

Mr. Mason was clearly impressed with my statement; to be honest I was too. I haven't said anything that moving sine like ever. While impressed, he was clearly not entirely convinced.

"That may happen. But you are not the 'people' Michael. You are a fourteen year old kid-"

"Fifteen in a month and a half." I interjected.

"You are a fourteen year old kid," Mr. Mason said again, still with his calm voice, "which presents problems."

"Why? There are younger kids than me fighting! And your own son fights too!"

"There is only one person younger than you who fights, and that's Jimmy. He's a… special exception. And Hal is a couple years older than you. He's different." Mr. Mason explained, his eyes drifting away a bit. "What do your parents think of this?"

"My parents are dead." I responded plainly. Mr. Mason's eyes shot back towards me, regret plain on his face.

"Oh, I'm sorry." It was silent for a little bit after words. I remembered Ben telling me that his mom was dead, so Mr. Mason must have been having some sort of flash back of his dead wife. Mr. Mason continued though as nothing had changed, "Then you're with the 2nd's orphan program?"

"Not exactly." I responded. "I'm living in room 117 with my Aunt, Uncle, and my two cousins. Plus about eight other people."

"I heard that rooms were cramped for civilians, but that seems like a little much." Mr. Mason said.

I shrugged before responding. "It's hard, but we make due. I miss my own room though, and space for me to just lounge around. I heard that the fighters have a lot more stuff then the civilians due."

"And is that why you want to join the fighters? To get better stuff?" Mr. Mason questioned. I twitched, realizing that I had just walked into a trap. _'Stupid!'_ I said to myself. I wanted to convince Mr. Mason that I was fighting material, not someone who was out for themselves.

Deciding not to lie, I confessed. "Ya, all that stuff would be a major benefit. But I'm being honest; I want to fight, to do something besides sitting around and waiting for an attack."

"You know," Mr. Mason said, talking like he was teaching some kid, "Few kids in this regiment really want to fight. Heck, few adults want to fight. They would prefer that other people did it for them. The kids that do want to fight, however, want fame and to become heroes. And that's something I won't allow. Kids shouldn't die for their own hopes of fame and glory, they are our future. You are our future Michael. I don't need you running off to be a hero."

I was zoning out though by that last part at the mention of being a hero, flashbacks coming into my mind.

_I coughed violently, standing up slowly and rubbing my eyes to get the blurriness out of them from that flash. After a little bit I looked up and saw a scene of terror._

_Smoke was rising up in several places and electrical sparks were coming off the phone wires. The air itself felt hot and muggy, but most the most noticeable thing was that there was almost no sound. No car horns, no helicopters overhead, no TV's blaring, nothing._

_That is of course until a helicopter came twirling downwards. It pasted by over head and keep falling in front of me, making it about two more blocks until it crashed into a house with a fiery blaze and the sound of people screaming._

_I looked out towards the city and saw the same thing happening with the other helicopters. All of them began to fall onto the city, piles of fire blowing up underneath them as they crashed into various spots. I looked farther and saw a fighter jet crash into a skyscraper in downtown Boston, sending much of the upper portion of the building into flames. Everything seemed to be effected, except for the Aliens crafts which were now flying out into multiple directions._

"_EMP." I muttered._

"_What?" My mom asked, holding onto my dad and reaching for my hand. _

"_EMP. Electrical Magnetic Pulse. It cancels out all electronics and vehicles, rendering them useless." I explained, now holding my mom's hand._

"_How do you know that?" My dad asked._

"_Call of Duty…" I said sheepishly. My mom groaned at my excessive habit of playing video games, even given the circumstances._

"_Daryl," my mom said, "James and Cindy couldn't have been far. I'm sure that their just a couple of blocks away!"_

"_What your point hon?" my dad asked, trying to power on his cell phone. I considered telling him it wouldn't work, but it wouldn't matter. He'll keep on trying anyways._

"_They were in an RV, they could be in danger! It could of exploded or something!" My mom said, her voice almost hysterical._

"_Mom, an EMP doesn't do that. The explosion thing I mean. It just shorts stuff out, look at all the cars around here! None of them have exploded." I tried to explain._

"_Can you please just go and check to see if they're nearby?" My mom pleaded to my dad._

"_And leave you two here alone? Hell no!" My dad protested, but my mom gave him that look that meant he wasn't going to win this argument._

"_We'll come with you!" My mom said, "Come on! We need to make sure their alright!" She grabbed both my dad's and my arm and dragged us down the street, towards the intersection to see if our aunt and uncle were nearby._

"Michael?" Mr. Mason asked, "Are you ok?"

I blinked several times, embarrassed that I zoned out like that. "Yes, I'm sorry about that Mr. Mason."

"So do you understand why I can't let you become a soldier?" He asked.

"Mr. Mason," I began, inhaling sharply, "Nobody knows this, but my family tried to be heroes when everything went bad. My mom, dad, and I tried to help the rest of our family out a sticky situation. And you know what I learned? Heroes die. It's as simple as that! I'm not out to be a hero, or to get glory, or any of that other crap. I just want to help fight some skitters, and if dying for the cause is something that I can't do at my age, then you can find an adult civilians and shot them instead of letting me die."

Mr. Mason looked shocked, though I thought I did pretty well on my second mini speech of the day. Well, except for that last part about shooting civilians, I think that put him off a little bit.

Mr. Mason's expression changed, and he actually smiled a little bit. Not a big smile, but a smile none the less. "Tell you what Michael." He said, rising from his seat, "I will think on your request and get back to you as soon as possible. Alright?" I could do nothing but nod and stand up myself, letting Mr. Mason lead me to the door.

Ben was still outside, resting on one of the lockers nearby. He snapped to attention when his father and I appeared out of their room. Mr. Mason smiled at his son, "Quite the friend you got here Ben. Very nice and respectful, I think that he could do well." He gave me an encouraging nod and turned back around, reentering his room. I turned to Ben, who looked thunderstruck.

"'Very nice and respectful'?" Ben said shocked, I shrugged, "Are you like you only around me?"

"Of course not Benny!" I said smiling, wrapping my arm around Ben's back while attempting to avoid the spikes. "Now come on, let's go get some food. I'm starving."

**Later**

It was late when I returned to room 117, much later than the curfew the fighters had set for us. Ben had made sure that we didn't get into any trouble with them, and while they respected Mr. Mason's son, they were still a little weary about the whole razor back thing.

Overall, the rest of the day with Ben was pretty good. We talked most of the time, and Ben's finally loosened up enough to begin teasing me back. That was good because now I don't feel as guilty about teasing him. There were stares and mutters of course about our growing friendship, but I found that I really didn't care that much.

I entered the room as quietly as I could, not wanting to make too much noise and wake everybody up. Unfortunately, someone was already up and I would have preferred that person be asleep.

"I heard an interesting story from Terry today." Uncle James said, looking directly at me with his most menacing glare.

"Didn't know Terry could tell stories, his brain just seems to be mush." I said casually. I knew that it was the wrong thing to say, but I was tired and maybe if I annoyed Uncle James enough he'll start yelling and wake everybody up. That ought to put him in his place.

Instead, he showed incredible restraint and pointed to the door. "Outside. Now." He said.

"There's a curfew, we can't leave this room." I said. Uncle James grabbed my arm and dragged me out the door, stopping himself from slamming it at the last second. He turned to me, where in the more illuminated hallway I could see the rage in his eyes.

"I told you not to go near those razor back! And what do you do? You go and make friends with one of them!" Uncle James said, his voice rising slightly.

"You didn't tell me anything! You told your kids that, not me!" I protested, already knowing that nothing I would say would make this situation any better. It would just make it worse.

"I was still talking to you!" Mr. Uncle protested.

"Then use my name next time!" I said, my own voice rising. "I have one of those!"

"Only because I've kept you alive! If it weren't for me, you would be dead! Just like your parents!"

"Please! All you've done is reinforce the name the fighters gave us civilians by eating through tons of our rations! You've done zip!"

Uncle James looked ready to explode, his hands forming into fist and his eye beginning to twitch. "Everybody knows that those razor backs are bad news! Just look at that black kid who was brought back first! He's all out there! Not saying anything to anybody and looking at everybody and everything like it worth shit! How long do you think it will be before they're all like that?"

Anger was building up in me now. Part of it was because he was insulting Ben in a way, and another because he only cared that I disobeyed him. He wasn't made about me being near 'razor backs' which in his mind would endanger my safety, he was mad because I had disobeyed something that he had said. And in his mind, what he says is law!

"Well you won't have to worry about me for long!" I said a bit too loudly, "As soon as I become a fighter you won't ever have to see me again!" Uncle James's eyes shot open in shock, his face growing redder by the second.

"You're going to be a fighter?" Uncle James could barely say, sputtering hard and his voice filled with awe shock.

"That's right! I don't need your approval or anything!"

"You're going to be a fighter…" My uncle said again, his voice trailing off.

"Something you or your insane son could never be!" I said, smiling as I did it.

Suddenly there was a very loud crack and I was blinded for a moment. I then realized that it was my skull that made that sound as the back of Uncle James's hand connected with my right temple. I stumbled back a bit and crashed into a couple of the lockers. My left temple hit the edge of one of the lockers, causing a shot of pain to move up and down my body.

I slumped down and saw my Uncle smiling, saying something that I couldn't hear since my head was still ringing. He got closer to me and I could hear what he was saying, "Find someplace new to stay fighter. You're not part of this family anymore."

Despite everything that had just happened, I smiled, "Thank God." I muttered. Uncle James sneered and his hand tightened into a fist. I thought he was going to slam it into me, but instead it went over my body and hit the locker above me. He got up, clutching his hand in pain, and reentered room 117.

My head was still ringing from the double blows and the whole hallway seemed to be shifting as I continued breathing heavily. Part of me had expected my Uncle at some point in our new relationship, but another part felt betrayed. How could he hit family? The hallway began to go black and everything seemed to be slipping away from me. I closed my eyes willingly, and said a silent prayer to please get me in with the fighters.

If I didn't become a fighter by the end of the week, I'm screwed.

* * *

><p><em>Thank you to all my reviewers and people who have added my story to their favoritesstory alerts. It's because of you that I feel such a drive to continue writing._

_I have finally decided what I want to do with this story, and I will give a spoiler that Ben will attempt at a romance. The person will be an OC, but I thought it would be good for Ben to get some love._

_Next Chapter is already planned out and almost finished, so expect a quick update. The next chapter will feature Jimmy and Michael, so be prepared for that!_

_And once again, **REVIEW!**_


	5. A Reality Check from a 13 Year Old

**Chapter 5 A Reality Check from a 13 Year Old**

The problem with guns is the recoil.

Every time I fire off a shot, the gun vibrates which causes my entire body to vibrate. The first time I fired my pistol on the 2nd Mass's practice range I feel back a couple of steps. My arms were still burning from the constant firing the range master had me doing at a target.

But I really didn't care too much about that. I could suck that up since Mr. Mason had made me a fighter, and now I was out to prove myself. I was concerned after my fight with Uncle James that I would have to go crawling back to him if I didn't make it into the fighters, but Mr. Mason seemed confident in my abilities, or at least the abilities that I'm trying to learn.

Ben was nearby, watching me practice my shots. I don't know why, but his dad won't let him learn how to shot a gun. If he were my kid, I would put a gun into his hands and teach him. But it wasn't my place to judge Mr. Mason; he did make me a fighter and gave me a whole new life.

I was annoyed with Ben a little though. The blow that Uncle James gave me had turned a nasty shade of purple, making me the center of gossip. Ben and the rest of the razor backs were happy about not being it for once, but Ben was also very concerned about how I got that bruise. I told him not to worry about it, though he wasn't listening that well. He would constantly ask me what happened and if I was alright. It's nice to have somebody who cares about me, I'll admit, but it's also really annoying.

The range master told me to stop firing and that we were done for today. It was only a fifteen minute lesson, but bullets were hard to come by and they didn't want us wasting shots. That's why the past two days I've been learning about guns and how to load a verity of them. They even taught me how to shot a missile launcher in theory.

"Lunch?" Ben asked as I exited the range. I nodded and we both walked to the lunch room in silence, my arms still a little shaky. On our way there we walked past the commander of the 7th Mass, or former commander I guess, Terry Clayton. His appearance reminded me of one of those game show hosts and his name had set me on edge.

"He's not a bad guy." Ben said smiling.

"I still don't like him." I muttered, reaching out and grabbing the empty holster that was wrapped around my chest. They hadn't permitted me to carry a pistol yet, but I felt safer having it on me anyways.

"Because his first names Terry?" Ben said questioningly, now laughing lightly. "That's a bit paranoid."

"Ya well I still don't trust him." I said as we rounded the corner and walked into the lunch room.

"If you judge people based solely on their first name, then we would never have been friends." Ben said, getting in line.

"What do you mean?" I asked.

"We knew a guy named Michael too. Michael Harris. He was a stuck up doctor who let my mom die just to save himself. He's dead now though now because the skitter that they had captive managed to get hold of him and I think my dad said it snapped his neck."

"Seriously?" I asked, "I never heard about this!"

"Nobody has. Weaver didn't want it getting out, so don't tell anybody. Dr. Harris wasn't as well known as Dr. Glass, so people haven't really noticed that he's gone." Ben said, holding out his tray for the cafeteria lady. She gave him a glare and dropped the food onto his tray at arm's length. Ben sighed and continued walking as I gave the lunch lady a stare of my own. She noticed my bruise and raised her eyebrows at me. I skipped her station over when I realized that she wasn't going to serve me any food.

I began to feel a little guilty though over the name thing. It was stupid I know, but was I any better than this Dr. Harris? Dr. Harris had betrayed Ben's family and in a way I had too. It set me on edge, but I pushed those thoughts to the back of my head.

Ben led me to our usual table in the back of the cafeteria, dubbed the razor back table by some. It was kind of like the nerd table in high school, where all the misfits and outcast go because nobody else wants to be near them. I was never at that table in high school, but I was kind of close.

The other razor backs nodded to us and continued to eat their own food. I noticed that another one of them had lost all their razors and absent mindedly stared at Ben's. Dr. Glass had issued a statement saying that the spikes in the backs of those kids harnessed would disappear over time. However that didn't sooth a lot of people's already frayed nerves. Now another ridiculous nick name was made up for those who had lost their razors.

Sleeper backs.

The conspiracy theory was that they had lost their razors so that they could work as undercover agents for the skitters, and when the skitters came their razors would reappear. They would then rejoin the skitters and kill everybody in JFK High School and then after words put the harnesses back on themselves. I laughed the first time Ben told me about the name, but I quickly learned that people were actually taking it seriously. It was almost like the Cold War now, with people fearing that somebody maybe a double agent, a moment's notice away from killing everybody.

"Mine aren't going away, I know." Ben said, taking a bite out of his sandwich. I averted my eyes from his back and returned to eating my own sandwich.

"We talked about this Ben and agreed that Dr. Glass is probably right; you just need some more time Ben. You were held longer than the others here," I said, pointing to the other people at the table "Just give it some time." I hope that came off comforting, I find that I'm actually getting better at it.

"Well I have another physical with Dr. Glass this afternoon. Maybe you should come and get your eye looked at. It's starting to turn red again." Ben said, pointing to my bruise. I rubbed my eye, knowing that it would make it worse but not really caring. Sometimes my eye would turn red due to irritation and tended to stay that way for several minutes.

"I don't think I'll be coming to your physical Ben." I said slyly.

Ben rolled his eyes. "It's just my back, idiot."

"Of course." I muttered.

"But seriously, you should have that eye checked out Michael." Ben said. I sighed, getting annoyed again at how caring he was.

"The sentiment is nice Ben, but I won't be joining you. Besides, I have my first guard shift tonight so I want to get some rest." I said with some pride seeping into my voice.

"I heard about that from Hal. Where are you posted?"

"On some bus near our fortifications on southeast side." I said before adding, "Jimmy is going to be there with me."

Ben looked up from his food, his eyes contemplative. "Hope you have fun with him." He muttered, returning to his food.

"Ben," I began, "It's no secret that you two don't get along. Why's that?"

Sighing, Ben replied, "I don't know. Probably because of the whole razor back thing." Some other people at the table looked at me dirty, but I pointed to Ben to show that he said it and not me.

"Tell you what, I'm going to be stuck on that bus with Jimmy for about three hours. So I'll talk to him-"

"No." Ben said, already knowing where I was going.

"-and I'll find out why he hates razor backs so much." Everybody at the table looked at me again. "That time it was me." I said.

"I appreciate it Michael, but I don't need you to talk to him for me." Ben said almost pleadingly.

"Well to bad, you want to help me with my eye so I'm going to help you with your prejudice problem." I retorted smiling.

"You won't even let me help you though!" Ben protested.

"Well maybe you're not trying hard enough. I guess when Jimmy comes crawling up to this table tomorrow, begging to be friends with you, you'll know who to thank!" I gave a smug smile and Ben threw some of his scraps at me.

"Jerk." He muttered, smiling. We both began to laugh, and once again, everybody at the table began to stare at us.

**Later**

It was pretty cool tonight, so I'm glad that I was able to grab some gloves and a scarf out of the clothing bin for the fighters. Jimmy was dressed almost the same way, but his gloves were tip less and he had worn a heavy jacket with no scarf.

We reported into the shift captain together and walked to our assigned post in silence. It became clear that I would have to get all conversations started for the next three hours, or else I would be sitting with a thirteen year old in awkward silence.

Problem was I sucked at conversations. Before the invasion I always relied on my other friends to start conversations and now post-invasion I had Ben to start them.

From what I've heard about Jimmy, he isn't much of a social guy. He didn't look like a social guy at least, with his closed mouth and tight stare. He really looked about three years older than his height suggested.

I was still planning on asking Jimmy about his prejudice, but I didn't just want to come out of the gate and say it. I wanted to build with Jimmy, to get some sort of relationship formed before asking the tough questions that would no doubt make him eye me with suspicion.

We reached the bus and I grabbed the handle to the emergency exit on the back of the bus, opening it up for us to enter. Jimmy climbed in first, followed by me. I shut the door tight, though I didn't lock it.

We moved to the front of the bus and took seats across from each other. I sat in the driver's massive seat, while Jimmy sat down across from me on one of the passenger rows. He began setting up some guns and checking his ammo count. I began to do the same thing, trying to make it look like this wasn't my first guard duty, but I was no doubt failing at it.

After a couple of minutes we finished and it was silent for awhile, with nothing but our breathing and the occasion cricket to make sound. I noticed that there was a chess board near the gears of the bus and pointed at it.

"Do you know how to play?" I asked. Jimmy looked at me like I just said it was dark outside.

"Of course I know how to play." He leaned in and began to organize some pieces on the board as I began to do the same thing.

"White moves first." I said, pointing to Jimmy's pieces. He looked the entire board over and moved his knight out first.

We played for a little bit before I decided to start talking, "So tell me something about yourself Jimmy."

"My name is Jimmy," he said, without looking up from the board, "I'm a soldier/scout for the 2nd Mass. This is my first time back out on duty in the last month, month and a half."

"Whys that?" I asked curiously.

"I messed up at something, and now Captain Weaver is giving me a second chance." Jimmy said scowling. He moved again and I moved my piece quickly again, not really interested in the game. I use to play with my dad all the time, but as I got older I lost interest.

"That's very kind of him." I said.

"He's a good guy." Jimmy responded with no emotion.

"Do you agree with all his decisions?"

"Obviously not the one to take me off the duty roster." Jimmy said, "But otherwise yes, I do."

"What about the stuff with the harnessed kids?" I asked mildly. Jimmy's eyes shot up from the board.

"What about them?" he questioned.

"Just, do you agree that they should be allowed to walk around free?"

"I don't think that's any of your business." Jimmy said, returning his attention to the board in front of him. Judging by the look of the board I think he's winning.

"Come on! I won't tell anybody!" I assured him. It was a lie of course; I was only going to tell one person.

"I don't even know you!" Jimmy said incredulously, "And from what I understand, your friends with one of them. Or at least, that's what you're telling him."

"What the hell does that mean?" I asked, and edge forming in my voice.

"Out of all the razor backs here you choose Ben to become friends with?" Jimmy said staring at me. I gave him a questioning look and he just laughed, "Come on! You become 'friends' with Ben, the son of the second in command of the 2nd Mass, and now you're a fighter? That's not a coincidence!"

"Why don't you just speak plainly and tell me what you think is happening, eh?" I said, moving a piece randomly on the board in front of me.

"You're using him!" Jimmy almost shouted, "Are you really that low and sleazy?" Anger built up inside of me. I didn't need some kid telling me what was immoral and what wasn't. What the hell does he know?

"You want to talk about low and sleazy? You're no better! You're already ready to label the harnessed kids with a derogatory term! That's like the Nazi's!" I protested, using an analogy that Aunt Cindy used and I was already regretting it. Not the analogy, that was good, but using something that Aunt Cindy had come up with.

"The Nazi's were insane. This is something completely different!" Jimmy said with conviction. "You know that Rick kid? Mike's son? Weaver told me that he tried to put the harness back on himself! He wanted it on himself, he was willing! And then when they wouldn't do it, he asked them to kill him!"

This was news to me. First the thing about Dr. Harris and now this! Apparently the 2nd Mass leaders enjoy keeping secrets from the civilian populace they guard. Jimmy returned to the chess game while I stared at him.

"Rick's a fluke. None of the other's are like him, they are normal people." I said.

"Who have spikes coming out of their backside!" Jimmy said exasperated, "Don't trust any of them; they'll just stab you in the back. Just you wait and see, though if Ben does attack you nobody can blame him. What you're doing to him is just cruel." He looked down at the chess board again and slammed one of his rooks down. "Checkmate." He said, looking away from me.

I was stunned beyond words, something that hadn't happened in a long time. After about a minute I came to my senses. "You're wrong." I said, looking at Jimmy, "Ben is a good guy. He won't betray us, and if you think he will then you're the biggest idiot I've ever met."

Jimmy's face was completely neutral and he was about to respond when there was a loud thumping noise on the other side of the barricade. We both looked out, trying to peer through the thin mist and the dark night. There were a few more loud sounds and then a deep moan that sent shivers up my spine and painful memories running through my mind.

'_Samantha look out!'_ _my dad a called. _

_He ran forward and pushed my mother out of the way and was engulfed in a bright light._

"_Dad!" I shouted at the top of my lungs._

"_Daryl!" My mom shouted herself, crying out in such agony that it had brought tears to my eyes._

_A loud sound came rising above our cries and a siren like sound began to ring in my ears, followed by another flash of light._

I was breathing heavily now as another deep moan came from beyond the barricade, though this time it was more mechanical in nature. I heard a faint whining noise again, just like last time and instantly knew what it was.

"Get down!" I called, grabbing Jimmy and forcing him to the floor on the bus. I heard a loud discharge and the sound of shattering glass overhead and I began to shake.

The Mechs had found us.

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><p><em>Thanks to all my reviewers: tgbwe, WhisperMaw, Kh530, DaughterofApollo 101, Brielle Montegomery (tried to respond to your review but it says that you disabled PM feature), Bouncemess, Xaviar and you anonymous reviewers!<em>

_I went a little A/U in this chapter so I hope you don't mind it that much. I have always found it hard to believe that Jimmy could harbor such a grudge against the razor backs in the episode Santuary. There had to be more to it, so since him and Weaver are friends (well in their own way) I just added the part about Weaver telling Jimmy about Rick. It justifies this fear for me because honestly, unless Jimmy had a terrible experience with the harnessed kids in the past, I don't see him falling for such prejudice thoughts. He's a smart kid who isn't prone to fear and shouldn't fall to the false fear the razor backs cause among the civilians._

_Next chapter should be up soon and I should clarify one A/N I made last chapter. The key word about that paragraph about romance for Ben was 'attempt_'. Just remember that. May be some comedy down the road :).__

__Hope you enjoyed and **REVIEW!**__


	6. Hollywood Action is a Farce

**Chapter 6 Hollywood Action is a Farce**

The shots from the Mechs had ripped through most of the engine area of the bus and destroyed the front. I was still on the ground shaking, trying to get a hold of myself, but the memories kept coming back.

I remember the blood covering me, my dad's blood. How he exploded when one of those Mechs fired at him and sacrificed himself for mom. For all the good it did! I was useless then, all I could do was cry and pray that it was all a bad dream.

Jimmy wasn't doing much better than me, clearly never being under fire from a Mech. He did say he was a scout and scouts are not fighters. They scout and stay out of trouble and sight. He was curled behind one of the rows of seats, clutching his gun.

The firing stopped and the Mechs let out a low rumble and began moving again, no doubt ready to break the barrier. My entire body was still shaking with fear as I continued to think about the last time I saw one of those things. All that blood, being completely useless.

Then I thought about everybody inside of the school, all the civilians. They would feel the same way as I did when I first saw that thing, scared and feeling utterly useless. But more to the point I thought of my uncle smiling smugly, saying that I never had it in me. I thought about me being just like him, dismissed after my first round of duty. I won't let that happen, and I won't let people die just like my parents did. I wasn't completely useless now.

I have a gun.

I cocked the rifle just like they should me in class and moved to the front of the bus and got a view of the area from behind cover. Turns out the 'Mechs' were actually just _a_ Mech which gave me a boast of courage.

"Help me Jimmy!" I shouted, not even bothering to lower my voice. But Jimmy looked at me with such fear in his eyes; I knew he was out of it. I cursed and removed myself from cover when the shots stopped, aiming my rifle. Unsurprisingly my first few shots missed, but I hit the thing twice around its eyes. I went back undercover when I saw it raising an arm to fire, and I shrunk down to as small as I could be. I heard the shots being fired, though it didn't sound like they were hitting the bus. It then dawned on me that it was shooting at the barricade, making a pathway for it to get in.

The shots stopped and I hissed again at Jimmy to help me, but he began to move his body towards the exit. I cursed several times and then raised myself again out of cover only to be hit with a bright blue light. My stomach dropped and all the blood drained from my face when I realized that I was going to die, but instead of the light killing me it moved all over my body and then disappeared.

I was to frozen in fear to begin firing at the thing, so I just stood there scared. I saw another flash of light as the Mech's eyes changed from a light blue to a deep yellow color. I didn't know what was happening, but then I saw the Mech's gun disappear and in its place a claw like hand appeared. Realization struck me when I realized what was happening.

Instantly I began to back up with Jimmy as the Mech crashed through the remaining barricade and charged towards the bus. It rammed into the bus which caused the entire thing to shake and us to fall over. I hit the ground hard and a shot of pain went up through my right arm starting near my elbow.

Jimmy seemed to have come out of his coma like state and was now firing rapidly all around. "Knock it off Jimmy!" I shouted, "One of those things is going to backfire and hit us!"

"It's going to get us!" Jimmy shouted almost deranged, "It's going to get us and put those things on us! I don't want it! I don't want it!" Jimmy continued to fire, wasting shots into the ceiling and side windows. There was nothing that I could do to stop him, so I began planning a way to get out of here.

We couldn't go back to the front entrance since the Mech was there and had blocked the way off with rubble, and the side exits were out of the questions. The only way out was back the way we came in, and Jimmy wasn't letting me by with all that constant firing he was doing.

"Jimmy! Cool it on the firing!" I shouted, "Jimmy that's enough!" Just then a Mech smashed into the side of the bus, caving in the roof and sticking its mechanical claw in to grab us. Both Jimmy and I began screamed in fear and now I began to fire my rifle widely as Jimmy reloaded his machine gun.

The Mech pulled its arm out of the bus under the fire of both of our guns and let out another mechanical moan. My gun was out and I didn't even bother to try and reload it, throwing it aside instead. Rifles were strong weapons but they took a while to reload.

"Jimmy! Get to the exit in the back of the bus!" I shouted before he began firing again. He began to crawl towards the exit when one of the Mech's arms crashed through the bus in front of him, sending him crawling backwards into me.

The thing tore its arm out of the bus and smashed another arm behind us into the bus. The side of the bus was ripped out causing the windows to break and the rows of seats to fall out the side. Jimmy was out of ammo and we were both screaming as the Mech threw the rubble to the side and reached out with both claws towards us.

Suddenly gun fire began to sound and the cling of it against the Mech's exterior armor became louder. The Mech turned its head to see where it was coming from. I wanted to know too, but right now we need to get off this bus.

"To the back!" I screamed at Jimmy, who nodded his head and began crawling towards the exit. I saw out of the corner of my eye the Mech backing up quickly and heard the shouts from the fighters closing in on the bus. The Mech didn't seem to have a problem firing on adults and proceeded to do so as it retreated.

Jimmy reached for the handle and opened it, opening the door and jumping out. But the door swung back and hit me, sending me back a couple of steps. I saw Jimmy running towards the school and Mr. Mason charging towards the bus, shouting orders at the other men around him.

A bright light filled the entire bus and I saw Mr. Mason shout something, but I couldn't hear him from the ringing of gunfire. I shoved open the door and heard a wail coming from the Mech, who I realized was now in front of the bus. I froze for a moment in shock, remember that exact wail as the same one those things made before they blasted my dad apart.

Frantically I shoved the door open and jumped out just as the Mech fired its mini bomb into the bus. I tried to close the emergency door in mid air but failed as the blast shot it off its hinges and into my left arm which I had raised to protect my face. Unimaginable pain shot through my arms and I cried out in pain, but I was silenced when part of the door hit my head and made my whole body go numb.

I hit the ground and I guess it hurt, but I couldn't really tell since everything felt numb. I was blinking rapidly now trying to clear my vision. I saw some bright colors in front of me, which was probably the bus on fire. Everything seemed to be slipping away from me and for the second time in less than a week I blacked out.

**Later**

I could hear voices when I began to open my eyes, but they seemed so far away. That groggy feeling I felt several nights back when I woke up outside room 117 from Uncle James's head blow was back, and it was worse than ever. For some reason I felt like I was missing part of my head.

Shock rocked through my body as I frantically reached up to touch my head, only to have a shot of pain go up my arm. I looked at the arm that I tried to use, only to find that it was bandaged up tight with red blotches soaked into the bandage. I tried to move but pain shot up my body again, causing me to let out a loud groan of pain.

I heard a chair move next to me and a familiar voice follow. "Michael?" Ben asked, "Michael?"

My vision began to clear and I saw Ben sitting to my left, next to the arm that was bandaged up. I looked around and I saw that his older brother Hal was there as well along with his younger brother, Matt I think.

"I got the whole Mason family to cheer me up." I smiled weakly, coughing a little bit. I tried to adjust myself to sit up straight but another shot of pain rocked through my body and I groaned loudly again. Ben and Hal rushed forward and helped me adjust. "Thanks." I said.

I heard voices, or a single voice, ranting and panting. I turned my head and saw Jimmy sitting on one of the beds on the other side of the room, with Dr. Glass using a heart monitor on him. I was surprised to see that Captain Weaver was there, and I think he said something about whisky.

"What are you guys doing here?" I asked, hoping it didn't come off as insensitive.

"I couldn't wait to hear how your night on guard duty went." Ben said smiling. I tried to smile also, but it hurt too much and it probably came off as more of a sneer.

"Ben was concerned about his boyfriend so he had me escort him to the hospital since everybody but the fighters are on lock down." Hal said, wrapping his arm around his younger brother. "Matt didn't want to be alone so he tagged along." Ben looked a little uncomfortable, and I had to laugh a little at that.

"Wait, what's that about boyfriend?" Matt asked, his voice confused. Ben gave Hal an accusing look, but he just shrugged.

"I don't think I'm his type." I said. Hal laughed and all the Mason kids sat down nearby. I absent mindedly used my good arm to touch my broken left one. Then I reached up and touched my skull, only to find a large bandage and wads of cotton covering my left temple.

"Dr. Glass patched you up pretty good." Hal said.

"Is it broken?" I asked, indicating my left arm.

"No, but the tendons were damaged. Luckily it wasn't too bad and missed the major arteries." Ben explained. "You have a pretty nasty cut though."

"Ladies love the scars." Hal said, wiping his pistol down.

"What about me head?" I asked.

"You got a pretty deep gash that will take a while to heal. You'll be able to still do stuff, but you'll probably have a nasty head ache for the next few weeks."

"Your left eye is all red." Matt said. Hal hit him softly, telling him to shut up.

"Cool," I said, "I've always wanted a different color eye. I would have taken green or gold, but red works I guess."

"What was it like?" Matt asked.

"What was what like?" I asked, "The Mech? The explosion?"

"All of it!" Matt insisted, leaning closer like I was about to tell him the greatest secret in the world. Hal looked a little uncomfortable with this and Ben looked curious like his brother, though he was better at hiding it.

I thought about it for a little bit, groaning a little from the pain. I could tell them about the fear or how it brought back memories of my dead parents. I could even lie and say I was like Rambo.

"Hollywood action scenes make battle look great and exciting. It isn't, it sucks." I said truthfully. Matt looked a little disappointed with that answer, though Hal seemed to agree with it and Ben looked thoughtful.

"But were you-" Matt began.

"That's enough Matt." Hal said, "His skull was almost cracked open and you don't want to give him a headache." I nodded appreciatively at Hal who nodded back. He was looking at me with a new found respect that I feel I haven't actually deserved. All I did was yell a lot, waste ammo, and nearly get blown to pieces.

Mr. Mason walked in and was now talking with Captain Weaver and Terry Clayton, whispering amongst themselves. Jimmy was still talking to Dr. Glass, though his voice seemed to be more controlled now.

"How is he?" I asked the Mason boys.

"He's banged up mentally, but he should be alright. I heard he took down a skitter by himself." Hal said.

"Seriously?" I asked. I felt a little jealously there, if the door hadn't slammed shut on me in the bus maybe I could of helped take down the skitter. Hell, I was the reason that Jimmy was even alive!

"Weaver killed that skitter." Ben said plainly. Hal looked at his brother and shrugged.

"Still a dead skitter and Jimmy was there. Knowing Weaver, he'll probably give Jimmy the credit."

Ben looked passive right now, but I could tell he wasn't too happy. I doubt that he wanted Jimmy to die, Ben was too nice for those thoughts, but he probably wasn't happy about all the attention that Jimmy was getting. The _positive_ attention he was getting.

Mr. Mason and Dr. Glass came over smiling at us. "What are you guys doing here?" Mr. Mason asked his sons.

"Ben wanted to check on his boyfriend." Matt said. Mr. Mason and Dr. Glass looked a bit taken aback and Hal was laughing. Ben was red again in the face.

"Um…" Mr. Mason said, unsure of what to do next.

"It was Hal, dad." Ben said, pointing an accusing finger at his older brother. Hal shrugged with innocence. Mr. Mason nodded in understanding and turned to me.

"How you doing Michael?"

"Had better days." I muttered. Dr. Glass approached me, holding out a needle. "Ah, I've never been good with needles. Don't you have pills?"

"Not for the condition that you're in." Dr. Glass responded. She lightly grabbed my arm and lifted the needle towards me. I winced a little as the needle punctured my skin. "I'm going to hold you for overnight watch, just to make sure you don't have any severe head injuries. I'm doing the same thing with Jimmy, so you'll have some company tonight."

"Joy." I muttered softly.

"I was going to contact your aunt and uncle Michael," Mr. Mason said, "but Ben told me not to. Do you still want me to contact them?"

"No." I almost shouted, shocking everybody there. "No," I said more calmly, "I'm ok. I wouldn't want to disturb them."

"I don't think you'd be-" Mr. Mason began.

"It's ok, I would be." I said. Mr. Mason's face was passive and emotionless and he just nodded.

I was starting to feel tired all of sudden and everything seemed to be going dark. Fear gripped me again as I thought I was blacking out again. I tried to move around but Dr. Glass held me still. "That was some anesthesia I just gave you. Relax, it makes the whole process more comfortable."

"We should probably get going guys." Mr. Mason said to his sons, his voice becoming slurred. "Ggivvve him sooooome reesssst."

"Seeeee youuuu latterrr, dooon't diiiie on usss." I thought I heard Hal say. I felt somebody put something in my hand and closing my knuckles around it. I couldn't see who did it, but I tried to nod a thanks.

"I'llll coooome byyyy in the morrrn-" Ben began, but I was already gone before he got a chance to finish. Before the drug took full effect I prayed for pleasant dreams of no skitters, Mechs, or blood.

'_I have enough of that in store for me in the future.'_ I thought, and then I passed out.

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><p><em>Thanks to all you reviewers and people who alerted to this story. Please <strong>REVIEW!<strong> There were very few last chapter._

_Children soldiers are a common tactic used in wars throughout ancient history. They help make a military group look larger and usually the children are excited about fighting, since it has been glamorized by the culture or through propoganda. This raises morale for everybody and give people good thoughts about the outcome of the war. However, children are not prepared for the horrors of war, which is why Michael and Jimmy were not total bad asses fighting off a Mech. The fact that Jimmy managed to escape a Mech and Skitter with little to no injury in the canon series is blind luck in my opinion, Michael however was not so lucky._

_Not to go all preachy, but there still are children soldiers today in Africa. They don't have a choice in fighting however, and are impressed into service by the adults. They die instead of the adults, and the 'adults' are usually the murderers, tyrants, and rapists. Those that do survive become the next generation of murderers, tyrants, and rapists._


	7. Tensions Only Rise, Never Fall

_I stole some dialouge from the series, so once again all credit goes to the Falling Skies writing team and TNT._

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><p><strong>Chapter 7 Tensions Only Rise, Never Drop<strong>

"I'm sorry Matt." I said, holding my hands to my temples, "Could you repeat that?"

"That would be the second time! Can't you pay better attention?" Matt complained. Hal put his hand on his brother's shoulder.

"Chill out Matt. I think we should stop talking for a little bit, give Michael some quiet."

I laughed a little, "If you were going for quiet originally then we shouldn't have come to the lunch room when it just opened." Hal nodded in agreement, not really offended by my comment. "Besides I do want to hear this story Matt. My heads just on fire!"

"Trust us Michael, you don't want to hear it." Ben said. I nodded and scooped up the last of my food. To be honest I had no idea what Matt was talking about but all I know was that it had something to do with an experience before the invasion. Dr. Glass had let me out of the infirmary this afternoon and Hal thought it would be a good idea for us to get something good to eat in celebration.

Luckily Hal was able to get us first in line which meant getting some good food. In fact it was the best lunch I've had in a long time, any of us had probably. We got some jealous stares from some other people, but most of them were moderately horrified by my wounds.

This morning in front of the whole Mason family Dr. Glass cleaned my wounds again and checked on the stitches in my left arm and forehead. I wasn't feeling too good when she started messing around with the stitches in my head.

"Sorry about that Michael, the pain will come in waves for the next few weeks so you'll have to get regular visits so I can check on you." Dr. Glass explained.

"Regular?" I asked. "Aren't stitches like put them in and then come back a month later? Not every few days?"

"If we had modern medical technology then yes, but disease is high and I don't want you to get infected with anything." Dr. Glass said, pulling out some bandages and cotton. "I want you to stop by every two days for a checkup and a refill on the drugs I'm going to give you."

"Can I continue being a fighter?" I asked. Dr. Glass thought about it while wrapping up my left arm. "Yes, but you can't go commando, alright? Only sentry duty until the stitches come out, which will help keep you blood level down."

"You mean like my last sentry duty?" I said, pointing to my injuries. Dr. Glass smiled, "I still can't believe that you took down that Mech Mr. Mason." I said turning towards Mr. Mason.

"Neither can I, and Uncle Scott is glad of it. Weavers got him studying the Mech suit which will hopefully help give us an edge over them." Mr. Mason said proudly. "Matt's going to be helping him out."

"Well I hope- Ow!" I said, wincing in pain when Dr. Glass pressed too hard near the stitches in my head.

So a couple hours later I was now sitting down in the loudest part of the school, my head throbbing with pain, and everybody shooting me glances. I felt a new kinship with Ben right now and really understood what he went through on a daily basis. I wouldn't tell him that though for fear about sounding sentimental, but I think he understood.

I missed the last part of the conversation between the Mason boys and began to zone out. Hal got up and walked away and so did Matt, running off to join his other friends. It was now just Ben and I at the table, who was smiling at me.

"What?" I asked.

"You look like crap." Ben said, taking another bit of his sandwich. I laughed a little, looking at my empty plate.

"And I'm hungry." I began to get up but I leaned the wrong way and my arm began to burn. Ben dropped his sandwich and began to sit me down.

"Why don't you wait here Michael, I'll get you something." Ben said.

"You don't have too." I began, but Ben forced me back into my seat.

"I insist." Ben said. I only nodded and Ben walked off to get me some food. I was surprised, seriously surprised with Ben. With my good arm I grabbed the shoulder Ben pushed down on and felt some discomfort there.

'_I had no idea Ben was that strong!'_ I thought to myself as I began to massage my shoulder. I looked towards the line to find Ben moving rather quickly through the line, but then I noticed why. Everybody was moving out of his way by either rushing through the line or simply taking a step back to allow Ben to move through and then moving back in line.

'_Jackasses.'_ I thought bitterly. Ben stopped when he got to the candy bars, looking over them probably to pick one out for himself. Some guy was eyeing Ben weird and I thought he looked familiar. I then realized that he was one of Uncle James's friends and I knew that things would be going downhill very soon.

Although I was still hurting I got up and began moving over Ben to try and move him away from Uncle James's 'friend'. Unfortunately I was too late and the guy had already pushed Ben lightly and drawn the attention of several people around him. I started moving faster when I heard the guy call out 'Razor back'.

"Hey Ben!" I said when I reached my friend, grabbing his shoulder. "I'm not really hungry anymore, let's get going alright?"

"Who's this? Your keeper, razor back?" the man said mockingly. Ben stiffened and looked angry, trying to shrink away from the crowd. But the crowd was growing around the three of us, eager to see if this man would attack the 2nd in commands son and his already battered friend.

Before things escalated further that girl Margaret appeared and stepped in between us, followed by a visibly pissed off Hal. He pushed the man back and puffed his chest out, trying to look intimidating. His age kind of ruined the effect, but the gun at his side helped him.

"Gotta problem?" Hal asked roughly.

"No problem." The man replied cockily, smiling at Hal as if amused that somebody would stand up for Ben. "Just glad we're not bringing more of those razorbacks back to the 2nd Mass."

"Nobodies stopping anything. Soon as we get the drugs Dr. Glass needs we're going to rescue as many of them as we can."

"Your just inviting a skitter attack! Just like the one last night!" The man protested, a hint of fear in his voice.

"Well the skitters should know by now," Hal said, stepping closer to the man "Anybody messes with our families gets their asses kicked. By me." There were only inches between the two of them now and I could swear they were about to start kicking each other's asses.

But the man stood down, holding up his hands in mock surrender. He walked away and people began to move apart, disappointed that no fight would ensue.

I turned to Ben only to find that he was walking quickly out of the cafeteria. "Somebody's going to have to talk to him." Margaret said, making it sound like more of a statement instead of an offer.

"I'll do it." I said, moving as quickly as I could out of the cafeteria. I saw Ben moving around a corner and I moved as quickly as I could after him. I turned the corner to see Ben trembling. He formed his hand into a fist and yelled as he slammed it into a nearby locker. Instead of his hand bouncing of the locker harmlessly it went into the locker, creating a major dent and breaking the locker off its hinges.

I jumped back, shocked by what my friend just did. Ben continued to yell as he grabbed the locker with both hands and threw it across the hallway. I stood there stunned beyond words, unable to think properly.

"I am so sick and tired of everybody here!" Ben yelled, "I'm so sick of being looked down upon! I'm sick of all the glares! I'm sick of everything!" Ben was about to smash his fist into another locker but I stopped him before he could be grabbing his hand. He almost threw me around with the amount of force he was putting into those blows.

I looked at his hand, expecting it to be mingled and bloodied, but instead it looked… fine. No redness or anything. I looked at Ben, still unsure of what to say. I should of just let Hal deal with this.

"Let's… Let's go in here Ben, al… alright?" I said pointing to a nearby empty classroom. I was angry at the stutter in my voice but Ben didn't seem to notice, instead laughing mockingly.

"As my 'keeper' commands! Razor back keeper, how does that make you feel Michael? Do you feel special?"

"Inside Ben!" I said more aggressively. Ben relented which was good because I'm sure if he tried to fight back he could knock me out. We went inside and I locked the door behind me, drawing the shade on the door's window so nobody would see what was going on inside. Ben was already pacing across the classroom.

"'Not going to stand in line with a razor back'," Ben said in a deep voice, mimicking Uncle James's friend. "Who the hell does he think he is? I'm a person god damn it! A human being! Not a skitter!" Ben pushed a desk aside and angrily yelling out again. He turned to me with an almost pleading look, "Aren't you going to say something?"

"No." I responded, regaining some of my composure. "It's good that you're getting your anger out."

"Oooh!" Ben said laughing again, "I have plenty of that! I am not like Rick ok! I am not!"

"Of course you're not." I said.

"I have emotions, and I don't want that harness back on me! I want to help the 2nd Mass and kill every last skitter!" Ben yelled as I looked behind me to see if anybody was trying to get in the room. "They think that just because I have some pins in my back they can beat me up and make fun of me!"

"Wait, what?" I asked confused, "Who's beating you up?"

"It doesn't matter! But they are!" Ben shouted, he pulled up his shirt and around his mid section there was a purple bruise. My eyes opened in shock, but Ben wasn't done showing me. He pulled off his shirt and turned around, revealing bruising all on his back. All of them were away from the razors in his back, and there were a lot of them.

"Why are they like this? Why?" Ben said pleadingly.

"I… I don't know." I said honestly. "They're just scared and confu-"

"Don't give me that crap!" Ben shouted, putting his shirt back on. "That's for my dad to say, not my friend! You are my friend right? Because I've heard stuff! I socialize with other people then you you know! Lauren, one of the other 'razor backs', said that you were just using me! Are you?"

"No!" I shouted, angry at being accused of such a thing even though he was right. "I am your friend Ben, and don't let anybody tell you otherwise!"

Ben began to nod, happy that he had somebody on his side. He moved away from me some more and turned to look out the window. "What are you think about?" I asked.

"I know what I have to do." Ben said to himself. He turned around and walked past me, slamming the door behind him as he left. As soon as he did I had to sit down.

I was shaking myself, but not from anger but from… fear. Fear of- of Ben! That was a whole new person I just saw, somebody who could seriously hurt somebody if he wanted too. The locker, the no bruising on his knuckles, his bubbling and boiling rage. I felt a fear running through my body, just like those people who whisper behind Ben's back about the dangers of razor backs. Ben was…

Different.

I had to sit down and think about things, and try and convince myself that Ben really was my friend and not a razor back to be feared.

**The Next Day**

Mr. Mason surprised everybody yesterday afternoon with news that he was sending his sons with Clayton. Everybody thought that after getting his son back from the skitters he would never let him or any of his children out of his sight again. Of course, it's not like Mr. Mason to actually listen to the gossip in the 2nd Mass, so he kept doing his own thing.

With Mr. Mason endorsing the plan, many other parents felt more comfortable with Clayton's plan and agreed to send their kids off to this safe heaven. But as with any plan there were still hold outs.

"It will only be for a couple of days Miranda." I heard one man telling his wife I presume. "They will be back before they and we know it!"

"No Jay! The kids are staying! I'm not sending them off into the wilds with a man we don't even know to protect them from an attack that we don't even know is coming!"

"Miranda a Mech attacked us last night. A skitter was inside the school! They are coming and they will kill us and drag our children off to become harnessed kids! You cannot be this blind!" The man said angrily. "I say that if Mason endorsed it, it's good enough for us!"

"I don't care if God comes down from the heavens and endorses this plan Jay! I am not sending my children away with some stranger!"

I'm not sure who won that argument because I didn't wait around to find out, but I didn't see them around when I went out to the front of the school where the kids and their families were massing. Since Dr. Glass wasn't letting me leave the school because of my injuries, Weaver had me patrolling the area to make sure that the children left the school with minimal problems.

There were some teary goodbyes and overemotional farewells, but no parent was about to cause a riot. This entire process was not mandatory so only people who wanted to send their kids away where here.

I was shocked to see that my uncle and aunt were out here with Terry and Bethany, kissing them goodbye. I tried to stay out of sight but I'm pretty sure they saw me. I didn't really care because I found who I was looking for.

"Hey Ben, got a minute?" I asked. Ben turned around, holding a backpack in his hands awkwardly and nodded. I brought him a little farther away from the crowd so we could talk in privacy. Ben held up his backpack, shrugging.

"I can't put it on." Ben said embarrassed, "It's too uncomfortable."

"Maybe Hal can carry it. Isn't that what big brothers are for? Pack mules?" Ben laughed lightly and then looked at me sincerely.

"I'm sorry about yesterday. I freaked out and you didn't have to see that."

"Ben I'm your friend, don't worry about it. And seeing as how I'm such a good friend, I have a gift for you." Ben visibly perked up at the thought of a gift, and I reached towards my back pocket to pull it out. I handed it to him and Ben began to unwrap it.

"It's a knife." Ben said, pulling it out of its cover and looking intensely at the metal as it shined in the sun light.

"Standard equipment for the fighters here. Civilians aren't supposed to have these so try to keep it out of sight. I know it's not as glamorous as a new car, but I thought practicality would work for ya." I explained. Ben sheathed the knifed and put it into the back of his pants. He adjusted it so it wouldn't hurt him too much and looked up at me.

"Thanks." He said.

"No problem." It was awkward after that, neither of us sure what to say.

"Well," I said, clapping my hands together, "I hope you have fun on your camping trip."

"Ya, the last time I went camping I was bit by a thousand mosquito's. Not a fun family experience."

"Well then I wish you luck." I said smiling, "Oh, and um, try not to be killed by anything. You're the only person here that I like."

"Michael actually likes somebody other than himself!" Ben said jokingly, "I'm stunned beyond words."

"Well don't let it get around; I have a rep to keep up that says that I'm a bad ass. I'm trying to start a counter rumor that says that I was the one that actually took down the Mech."

"That ought to rub Jimmy the wrong way." Ben said.

"And another thing Ben, don't stab Jimmy when you're out alone in the forest. That wouldn't be good for morale." I said.

"Relax, I would just cut him softly." I looked at Ben and laughed. He laughed too and silently prayed that he was kidding.

We walked out to the main body and Clayton called for everybody to move out. The children said one final goodbye to their parents and then joined Clayton and the fighter escort. The parents who were keeping their children behind watched from a distance, and I could hear some kids actually pleading with their parents to let them go and be with their friends. Ben looked back to me one last time and I nodded encouragingly.

'_I seriously hope he isn't killed.'_ I thought to myself as I walked back into the school.

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><p><em>Thanks to all my reviewers and people who alert!<em>

_In the episode _Sanctuary_ I have a hard time believing that the kids who leave for the 'safe heaven' were all the kids in the 2nd Mass. All the episodes before that one, and even during that episode, made it sound like the 2nd Mass had a large child population, and then seeing only 15-20 kids leaving the school is a bit of a 'wait... what?' moment. I can only assume that because the order wasn't mandatory some people refused to send their kids with Clayton. So that's what I did in my story._

_For those of you who wanted Michael to give some sagely advice to Ben, sorry to disappoint. One of my pet peeves is kids who give sagely advice to their peers or adults. They are kids! They don't have the knowledge or enough life experiences to be giving elderly advice to people!_

_And as always... **REVIEW!**_


	8. The Truth Does Not Set You Free

**Chapter 8 The Truth Does Not Set You Free**

It had been two days since Clayton left for his safe haven with the children and teens, and so far no skitter attack had come. Scouts reported that the roads were clear and the aliens were staying close to the massive structure, continuing their scavenging runs with their child slaves. It seemed more and more like the Mech attack the other night was just a random encounter instead of a pre-emptive strike against the school.

Still, tensions were high as the thought of an attack ran through everybody's mind. Some parents were regretting the decision they made regarding their kids, either now wanting them with Clayton instead of at the school or wanting their children with them at the school so they can be a family. Many people had withdrawn from the public eye and were packing backpacks just in case the skitters attacked and they had to make a quick escape.

Since everything seemed to come to a standstill around the school, Weaver had to order his non-essential fighters, meaning the ones who were injured or young, to help around the school with civilian tasks.

So for the past three or so hours I've been shuffling in between jobs, trying to find something that I'm good at. My arm injury had limited me in many tasks, so I could only do the most meaningless and boring tasks in the school. My first was relabeling all the boxes for food and clothing, since the 'permanent' marker had washed off. After about twenty minutes of this I was ready to bash my skull in and knew that I had to get out of there. So I found some little kids to help me, and then silently sneaked away while they were working diligently.

Next I went to help out in the lunch room, but it turns out people are paranoid about infection and didn't want somebody with bloody bandages giving out food. Sickness was at an all time high and Dr. Glass was working hard to keep people out of the infirmary, so she had passed out a list of things to do in order to prevent disease. One of those was to keep injured people away from the food.

Walking away from the cafeteria I met up with Scott, who needed help in his laboratory. "Since I've lost the youngest Mason boy to Clayton, I have had to do a lot more work. People think what I do is easy, but it isn't. An extra pair of hands always comes in handy."

So I helped Scott for about an hour, trying to fix things with just one good arm. He saw how I was struggling and decided to have me roll up film instead.

"I'm trying to get the film projector to work so we can actually have some electronic entertainment. It might be good for morale around here, ya know?"

"Ya, do you have any Looney Tunes in here Scott? They were my favorite when I was kid." I said, pressing and rolling the film.

"'fraid not Michael. And you can call me Uncle Scott, everybody else does." Scott said, tinkering with some satellite dish by the looks of it.

"Oh, do you mind if I just call you Scott?" I said. Just saying the word 'Uncle' brought up not so fond memories of my dear Uncle James.

Scott nodded confused, and then turned back to his satellite. Getting bored I got up from my seat and wondered over to where Scott was. He looked at me, nodding to the satellite. "Some fighters brought it back a week ago." He explained, "Weaver and Porter wants me to work on fixing this thing up so we can work use long range communications between the different regiments. Much easier and safer than sending out scouts."

"How's it coming?" I asked.

"Well I may be good with electronics, but this has got me stumped. I could defiantly use some help, and I've asked Weaver for it too. I hear the guys in the 7th Mass were good with electronics, but their gone."

After about another ten minutes I left the lab and went to the duty roaster in the fighter's wing. I looked to see if there were any open spots and saw that there was one guarding the roof around the courtyard. Eager to get outside and out of sight, I went to the armory and grabbed a pistol and one of the 47's we had, awkwardly holding it due to my left arm. I managed to get to the roof and I began the normal patrol motion of walking back and forth and looking up at the sky every once in awhile.

I looked down at the crowd in the courtyard, studying the people there. I saw my aunt and uncle, huddled with other parents no doubt talking about something unholy. My aunt looked up and saw me, her face rigid with anger and hatred towards me. My uncle looked up too, but he looked away not even bothering to acknowledge me anymore.

'_Daryl! Help me get them out!' My mom called, going around to the entrance of the RV were my aunt and uncle were. The RV had crashed into a pole, shattering most of the front windows glass. Both of them were unconscious and I saw Bethany crying in the back. _

_My dad moved forward, shoving the door open and stepping inside. I heard Terry shouting and Bethany crying. 'Get them out of here!' My dad said to my mom. She waved me over and I helped them out of the RV, looking at my aunt and uncle._

_For a second I thought they were dead, they sure looked like it. Uncle James's face was bloody and his neck was craned back with his mouth ajar. My aunt was lying down on the dashboard, her face buried underneath her hair. There was glass all around her, and trails of blood were going down the dashboard._

_I had to back out of the RV and run around to the other side so nobody would see me throwing up. The smell was terrible and the sight was even worse. I cleaned off my mouth and went back towards the entrance where was mom was in an argument with my dad._

'_We are going to get them out Daryl! We will not leave them!' She shouted._

'_Sam, we don't have time! They're wedged into their seats and no doubt going to die!' my dad protested, hurt in his voice because of what he was proposing._

'_No!' My mom said sternly, 'We are staying. We do not leave family behind. We do not forget family!'_

I laughed to myself, thinking about how little that sentence meant to my aunt and uncle. They were willing to forget about me, they couldn't care less about my existence. I was an extra mouth to feed to my aunt and apparently to my uncle I was just a brand new punching bag.

"You look deep in thought." I heard a voice say behind me. I turned around to find Mr. Mason right behind me. He came up beside me, staring down at the crowd in the courtyard.

"Did you play sports?" He asked, pointing towards a bunch of kids playing soccer in the courtyard.

"Not really. I wasn't exactly the greatest athlete, so I was the guy who was picked last most of the time."

"Ben was like that." Mr. Mason said, reminiscing on some old memory. "He would try to be like his older brother with sports, but usually he found his way back inside. He preferred to read like me."

"He told me about that." I said.

"Ya." Mr. Mason said, nodding his head. "You know I appreciate you being friends with my son."

I chuckled, "You make it sound like a chore."

"Well you know the kids around here. They're influenced by their parents who fear the harnessed children that we've gotten back, so they ignore him mostly. Ben wasn't always social to start off with, so this makes things even harder for him."

I was considering telling Mr. Mason about the bruises that Ben had, but thought better of it. If Ben wanted his dad to know he would have told him. Even if I was pretty much Ben's best friend here, I haven't known the Mason's long enough to start messing around in their family.

"Well, he actually started talking to me first." I said.

Mr. Mason looked surprised. "Really?"

"Ya. To be honest I thought he was being annoying and just wanted him to go away, but he stuck around and now we're friends." I explained. That wasn't the truth, but the truth would kill Mr. Mason. _'The truth does not set you free.'_ I thought to myself.

"And I know that he's happy about that." Mr. Mason said. His eyes turned back to the courtyard and settled on my aunt and uncle. "That your family?"

"I would use the word 'family' loosely Mr. Mason." I said with bitterness.

"They give that to you?" Mr. Mason said, pointing to my right eye, where Uncle James's bruise had turned an ugly shade of yellow.

"No," I said stiffly, "I-"

"Banged it on something, tripped on something, take your pick Michael on what stupid excuse you're going to use." Mr. Mason said calmly. I felt my body tense up completely and anger flood through my body, ready to give a response that no doubt effect my friendship with Ben. "Ben told me that your aunt and or uncle had hit you." Mr. Mason said.

That stopped me, as another wave of emotions flooded through my body. I felt betrayed by Ben, how could he tell his dad that? I never told him what happened but Ben wasn't stupid so he would have figured it out. He _did_ figure it out.

"He wanted you to move in with us." Mr. Mason said.

For the second time in just seconds I stopped. "Ben… wanted me to move in with you guys?" I said confused.

"He thought you were in a 'hostile environment' and thought it'd be best if you moved in with us. You could be around friends and start a new life."

"I…" I began, but nothing else came. I was stunned that Ben would actually care that much to propose something so… weird. Me, move in with the Masons?

"I told him that I couldn't do that because that would show favoritism towards certain fighters and that I had to put you in the barracks. He was disappointed, but he got over it." Mr. Mason said.

"I don't know what to say." I said honestly.

"You don't have to say anything. I just wanted to let you know that I'm thankful that you decided to get past Ben's… statues as a," Mr. Mason cringed, "Razor back."

"You're welcome." I said. Mr. Mason nodded and walked off the roof, leaving me to stare at him dazed. Nobody had said anything good about me in a long time, or at least something that made me feel good about myself.

I turned away, smiling. For once, I think I'm doing something right.

**Later**

Mr. Mason had left just after sunset to go and check on the children at the safe haven, sending many different feelings through the civilians.

Some thought that because Mr. Mason was going they should take it as a bad sign. If Mr. Mason was leaving to check on the kids himself, something must be wrong. Mr. Mason was just the person that trouble followed religiously. Other's felt a sense of hope since they felt like when Mr. Mason returned telling them how everything was going great over Clayton's haven they could send their kids there too. Some kids even had their bags packed in anticipation of seeing their friends again soon or just wanting to get out of the bleak atmosphere around the school.

I was assigned guard duty around the civilians, which was now just like a babysitting job. I would patrol the hallways around the civilian quarters and help get everybody settled in and ready to be up and running if the skitters attacked. Most families were ready but Weaver thought that some might try to take more than they could carry which would slow people down and cost lives. Weaver did not like people dying under his care.

After I finished my babysitting duties I walked outside and got a breath of fresh air. The nights were fairly cold and many of the night sentries were bundled up tightly. Some of them so tight I don't think they could properly handle their weapons if skitters came.

I looked up at the sky, seeing all the stars above. If there was one good thing about the invasion it was that the sky had cleared up considerably and one could see more stars then when there was light pollution.

One night I actually saw another planet and I began to think about where the skitters came from. No doubt it was hideous and dying, but they probably still kept momentums from their home. I made the mistake of asking Ben about that, asking if he had seen anything that could possibly tell us more about where the skitters had come from. Ben gave me a dirty look and responded 'no' before looking away.

I saw some fighters talking in a group, laughing quietly amongst themselves and felt a bit of jealously come up. I had only begun to realize how alone I was at the school without Ben and how few people I actually knew. Before I met Ben it wasn't so bad because I never thought about it, but now that I actually had a friend I saw just how anti-social I was.

I was tempted to join in on some conversations that I heard, but I knew that the civilians would want me to leave and the fighters would consider me too young to be talking with them. I actually felt kind of sad, wondering why I was so anti-social to begin with.

Wanting to get away from those happy people I went back inside. I decided to get some sleep in and in the morning try to convince Dr. Glass to let me go to the safe haven. My stitches were fine and I wasn't bleeding as much anymore, all I needed were some drugs and I was fine.

"I know." I heard a voice say behind me. I recognized that voice and turned in annoyance.

"Know what Aunt Cindy?" I asked, looking around. She had sure picked the place to ambush me since we were on the outer section of the school, with very few people around. I chose to come this way since it had fewer people and I would be less likely to be sent off on sentry duty for the night. Looks like I had my own stalker all the way here.

"I know how you used that razor back." She said, smiling triumphantly. I refused to cringe in front of my aunt so I tried to keep my face passive. _'I guess she no longer cares about stereotyping the razorbacks I guess.'_ I thought to myself.

"Who?" I asked. "I don't know anybody with the name 'razor back'."

"Mason's kid!" She spat, moving closer to me with her fist clenched. "You didn't think we wouldn't figure it out! You befriended him and now that's made you a fighter! Do you know what that's done to our family?"

I scoffed, "I don't give a damn since it's _your_ family."

"Our family!" My aunt said with care in her voice. "You are part of this family as well!"

I had to laugh at that as I leaned in closer to my aunt, squinting my eyes at her. "Your insane if you believe that Cindy."

My aunt looked like she had just been slapped. "I am your aunt Michael! You will address me with respect! We looked after you after your parents got killed, feeding you and clothing you. We treated you like one of our own."

"Oh please!" I shouted, "You gave me misery and crap and dare call it love and support. You didn't care about me or my parents! You just 'looked after me' to keep your conscience clear, but I can see that you have moved along just fine now that I'm gone."

Cindy's expression changed radically, the caring expression gone and the cold calculating one that I had grown us to replacing it. "You were always just an extra mouth to feed. But now you have use."

"I'm not doing anything for you." I said walking away. My aunt was surprisingly fast though, managing to get in front of me, blocking my way.

"My son went running away from this place like a scared little boy. That wouldn't have happened if he was a fighter!"

"Your right, he would have been dead because his fellow fighters would of shot him for incompetence! Like father like son I guess." I retorted with a crocked smile.

"How dare you!" My aunt shouted.

"We're done here." I said, but my aunt blocked my way again.

"Not unless you want the Masons knowing how you've used their poor Ben for your own purposes!" Cindy said smiling like a mad women. I froze, unable to say anything. "Make my son a fighter, or I will tell that razor back how his only friend used him. That ought to go down bad for you, and not only with just you and that thing but with the entire 2nd Mass and especially Tom Mason."

I feared that this would happen, that someone would tell Ben that I used him. But I never pictured somebody using it against me.

"Does Terry even want to fight?" I asked with an edge in my voice.

"He will." My aunt said coolly. I smiled, knowing that Terry had no desire to want to fight. He would be forced into something that he wasn't ready for or willing to do just to serve his parents sick desires. No doubt they'd be selling off poor Bethany soon enough.

I walked around my aunt, silently walking towards my room. "You have three days, or I tell!" Cindy shouted out behind me. I got back to my room and plopped down in my cot. I had no idea what to do, but now I knew why I wasn't social.

'_People are jerks.'_ I thought.

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><p><em>Thanks for all the reviews! You guys are great!<em>

_No rants this update, so I only have to say:_

_Please **REVIEW!**_


	9. Legitimate Fears

_Once again borrowed some dialouge from Falling Skies. So again, all credit goes to the Falling Skies team. I own nothing except my own characters and ideas._

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><p><strong>Chapter 9 Legitimate Fears<strong>

"Penny for your thoughts?" Dr. Glass asked, wrapping the bandages on my arm again after my physical exam. "You seem distracted."

"Oh, I'm fine." I said dismissively, "Well, except for all these cuts and bruises." Dr. Glass nodded and gave me a look, like she knew that wasn't the full story.

"You bored without Ben around?" Dr. Glass asked innocently, grabbing some tape to bind the bandages together.

"A little." I said, wincing as she put pressure down on my arm. I wasn't really in the mood for talking since I felt sick after last night. Dr. Glass seemed to get the message that I didn't want to talk finished wrapping up the bandages and looked me over.

"You know the instruction." She said, handing me a few pills for me to take later.

"Take the pills, don't do any heavy lifting, and don't get yourself hurt." I said in a bored tone. She smiled and looked at me, like she wanted say something. She didn't however and escorted me out of the hospital wing, saying goodbye and closing the doors behind her. I walked around absently mindedly, thinking to myself of my misfortune.

"Karmas a bitch."

I knew that it would catch up to me, that I would have to tell Ben that I had used him in the beginning. But I thought I would have more time and that Ben would find out a different way than having my aunt blab to him. I never imagined getting blackmailed by my own aunt.

I thought about how Ben would react to the news. The best case was that he didn't believe my aunt and I was able to assure him that she was lying. Later, much later, I could tell him the truth. But that thought was thrown out the window before it took full form as I remember Ben yelling the other day and how he mentioned that he heard 'rumors' of how I was using him. If my aunt told him then he could call me a manipulator and a liar.

I was a wreck internally, dreading what would happen if or when Ben found out. He would be pissed, but Hal would be even more pissed. I was tough but not tough enough to stand against Hal. I then thought about Mr. Mason and how the rest of the fighters would react when they found out. Aunt Cindy was right when she said this would destroy my reputation in the 2nd Mass.

Some fighters went running by, shouting something about seeing a bike coming towards the school. I snapped out of my private thoughts and rushed after them, thinking that a bike meant a Mr. Mason and news from the sanctuary. But I stopped short when I realized that I was rushing towards the head of the Mason family and if I saw any member of the Mason family I would probably puke.

I was surprised however when I saw fighters rushing back towards me, supporting a limping guy. I took me a second but I recognized the wavy dirty blonde hair.

"Ben!" I shouted, feeling a little queasy. I was hoping that he didn't hear me so I could run the other way, but I was loud and Ben looked up at me.

"Michael! Come help me!" He said, though it sounded kind of pleading. Still a little shaky I moved forward towards Ben, being supported by two men. Despite them helping him walk neither of them looked too happy, and one of them smiled when I actually took Ben from him. I staggered a bit under Ben's weight and was about to ask for help form the two guys, only to find that they had ditched us.

I felt something wet against my right leg and looked down to see Ben's leg pressed against mine, with a dark red color formed around the area.

"Holy crap!" I shouted, almost dropping Ben.

"Weaver wants me at the Hospital." Ben said a little out of breath.

"What happened? And why do you sound like you've been running for a long time?" I asked, moving us towards the hospital wing.

"Long story, but I was running." Ben said, groaning as I tried to carry him to the hospital.

"What?" I said shocked. Besides Ben's rapid breathing there were no other signs that suggested that he had been running. His face wasn't red from panting and he didn't smell like sweat all over. If it were anybody but Ben I would call them a liar.

We burst into the hospital ward, where Dr. Glass was writing something down.

"Oh my god! Ben!" She said shocked, jumping up from her seat and rushing towards us. She helped Ben to the nearest Ben and started barking orders at me. "Get me some pillows and some bandages. Some hot water too! We need to clean that out!"

I rushed over to where I saw Dr. Glass collect all that stuff previously for me and brought it back to her. She already had a pair of scissors out, cutting away at Ben's pant leg around the cut. She ripped it off at around Ben's knee cap and examined the cut.

"Oh god!" I said unintentionally, pulling away from the foul smell that the cut was making. Ben looked concerned and so did Dr. Glass.

"It's infected." She said, pulling a cloth out of the hot water and putting some alcohol on it.

"What does that mean?" Ben asked, but shot his head back and yelled in pain as Dr. Glass put the rubbing alcohol and hot water on the cut. He groaned deeply and looked the cut, which was bleeding again.

"It means I have to work fast to save the leg." Dr. Glass said, cleaning out Ben's wound more.

"Wha- what?" Ben asked, fear in his voice. Dr. Glass ignored it and began working on his leg with dedication. She finished cleaning the area and I got a good view of the cut.

The cut went up from Ben's ankle to about midway up to his kneecap. The cut itself was gruesome as it continued to bleed lightly and had some small objects coming out it. The area around the cut wasn't any better, with the entire area looking inflamed and even a little black around the edge of the actual cut.

"Michael, talk to Ben." Dr. Glass said to me, not looking up from her work. I looked at Ben who looked like he was about to have a full blown panic attack. I imagined that I looked something like that when the Mech was attacking us so I sympathized with Ben. I went to Ben's side and sat down next to the bed.

"How did this happen Ben?" I asked lightly. Ben closed his eyes and began panting heavily. His breathing slowed and opened his eyes.

"Clayton's sanctuary was a trap." Ben said.

"What?" Dr. Glass said, looking up from Ben's leg with shock on her face.

"The 7th Mass was whipped out, but a remnant of it managed to survive by trading kids to the skitters."

"Oh my god." Dr. Glass said, shock in her voice. I was stunned too, it makes sense that people would resort to low means in order to survive, but trading away children? There's nothing worse than that.

"We managed to get away and we made it several miles before he had to stop at some house. I offered to run ahead and warn the rest of the 2nd Mass about this betrayal." Ben continued, his breath becoming more rapid again.

"You offered to run the entire way back?" I said impressed. Dr. Glass snapped at me to hand her some towels that were right behind me. I did it quickly, eager for Ben to continue his story.

"Ya, and I was doing well until this happened!" Ben said, gesturing towards his cut leg. "I had to cut through some forest in order to escape Clayton's men and I stumbled down a ledge." Dr. Glass pulled out some tweezers, looking at Ben.

"Into a tree?" She asked, "You had particles of wood in this cut."

"Not into a tree, but I landed weird on one of the roots." Ben said, pulling up his sleeve to show off a dark bruise. "I rolled to the side and I was about to fall down another ledge when the roots snagged my knee cap."

I looked a Ben's left knee cap to see that it was bruised too. "Jesus." I muttered. "How'd you get out?"

"I had a knife luckily." Ben said, smiling at me.

"Where did you get that?" Dr. Glass said confused. "Those are dangerous if you don't know how to cut with them properly."

"Ya, I learned that." Ben said with a hint of sarcasm. "I cut the root, but I did it too fast and I cut myself loose, which made my legs fall towards me and left the knife stuck in the root. As I feel my leg cut up against the knife, thus the injury."

"So you don't have the knife on you?" I asked.

"No, I left it there as I began to crawl away." Ben explained, sad that he had lost it. I wasn't too upset because I figured Ben could use it to stab me if he found out the truth.

"Where were you crawling?" Dr. Glass asked.

"Anywhere I guess. Luckily I made it to the road and my dad and Dai pulled up on their bikes. I told them everything and my dad went after the kids while Dai rode me back to tell the others and get my leg fixed up."

"Well I've done the best I can." Dr. Glass said sadly. "Michael, I need to talk to Ben about something. Can you give us a moment?"

Dread crept through me and I looked at Ben. He seemed to have a bad feeling about it too, so he decided to send me away with a task.

"Go with Weaver please Michael? Just make sure my dad and brothers are alright." I raised an eyebrow, finding that to be an odd request. But I nodded my head and left the room before Dr. Glass could protest me leaving the school. Not that she seemed to care now since she was wrapped up with Ben.

Part of me wished I could stay, but another part wanted to get the hell away from Ben. I listened to the latter part of my brain and went to find Weaver.

**Later**

"Get your hands up and drop your weapons!" Weaver shouted, holding his gun to Clayton. One of Clayton's men tried to shot him but Weaver was quicker and shot him before he even had his gun cocked. "I said drop them!" Weaver shouted again and everybody from the 'sanctuary' proceeded to do so.

We had moved quickly onto the buses and trucks in order to get to the sanctuary in time. Weaver had said he wanted Ben to come to give directions but when he heard about his condition from me he changed his mind. Dai would have to lead and he did, lucky for us. I'd hate to be lost with Weaver.

Fighters came in from all directions, surrounding the enemy fighters and rounding up the stunned and joy filled faces of the children. I saw my cousins among the crowd, where Bethany was shaking with joy and Terry still looked really scared. I can't say I blame him though, being traded to the skitters is a scary prospect for anybody to face.

"What about me Dan?" Clayton asked, a small smile on his face with his hands behind his head. "You gonna shoot me too?"

"Only if I have to." Weaver said sternly, not letting Clayton out of his sights.

Clayton chuckled softly and then looked at Mr. Mason. "Tom?" he asked. "What's the next step of this plan of yours?" Before Mr. Mason could reply, Clayton moved faster than I thought possible and grabbed Hal and forced a gun into his side. "Cause I was thinking this!" He shouted, about to pull the trigger.

Before he could there was a loud crack and Clayton groaned, letting go of Hal and dropping his gun. He stumbled back a few more paces and coughed a little blood before falling to the ground, dead.

"Holy crap." I heard one of the fighters say behind, "That was some real Clint Eastwood stuff!"

There were some screams from the children and some of the new fighters looked horrified, obviously never seeing death before. I stared passively at Clayton, unmoved by his death. _'I told Ben that he was bad news.'_ I thought to myself, awkwardly holding my weapon at some enemy fighter.

"You ok?" Mr. Mason asked his son. Hal looked shook up, but otherwise unharmed.

"Yeah, I'm ok." He said dazed, before turning to all of us. "Did you know they were waiting for us?"

"I hoped." Mr. Mason said smiling. Weaver stepped forward, turning towards the crowd of sanctuary civilians.

"You people," Weaver said, "You can go or can stay, I don't really give a damn. But if I find that you've been dealing with the skitters again I'll kill every last one of you. Take their weapons; we'll give them to people who actually deserve to be called fighters."

The weapons were collected and the sanctuary civilians solemnly walked back into their log house. Mr. Mason and his two sons appeared behind me, grabbing my shoulder.

"Hey, how's Ben?" Mr. Mason asked while looking right at me with an intensity I'd never seen before. I swallowed nervously, not quite sure what to say. My delay seemed to tell the Mason family that something was wrong, as all of them developed a look of despair.

"It isn't good." I said.

**The School**

"Out of my way!" Mr. Mason shouted, moving through civilians and fighter alike. Hal and Matt were close behind him, followed by me. I had to tell them something and since telling lies wasn't working for me recently I told them the truth. I tried to dub down some of the worse details, but they understood that things were bad.

Mr. Mason burst into the hospital room looking like a crazed man. His eyes found Dr. Glass and he rushed towards her. "Where is he? Is he ok?"

"Dad!" I heard Ben shout. Mr. Mason turned to his son's voice and then his face morphed into shock. I heard some soft banging and then I saw Ben turn the corner, walking with a crutch under his arm, smiling.

"Ben…" Mr. Mason said shocked. He began to laugh and hugged his son. Matt run up and did the same thing while Hal approached the group, grabbing his brother's shoulder and smiling.

'_What the…'_ I thought to myself. This is not what I expected when I got back, I thought we'd see Ben on some bed, missing a leg or under some severe medication. Instead here he was, up and about and looking a little tired but not bad otherwise.

I looked at Dr. Glass, but she wasn't making eye contact with me. She looked disturbed herself and approached the Mason family. "Tom, can I speak to you for a second?" She asked. Tom nodded, kissed his son's forehead and walked away with Dr. Glass to a back room.

I was considering staying with the Mason boys, but I thought it would be best to give them their space. So I followed Dr. Glass and Mr. Mason and eavesdropped on their conversation.

"What are you saying?" Mr. Mason whispered with a hint of anger in his voice. "That my son is some sort of freak? A razor back?"

"No!" Dr. Glass whispered harshly, "You aren't listening to me!"

"Because what you're saying doesn't making sense!" Mr. Mason protested.

"Listen to me Tom!" Dr. Glass whispered sternly, "That cut on his leg was infected, majorly infected. Even with modern medical tools before the invasion it would have been hard to make the leg turn out ok. The only answer was to cut it off!"

"My son's leg isn't cut off though! And he's walking fine!" Mr. Mason said.

"I can see that! Ben wanted to wait until you got back before he made a final decision so I gave him some sleeping drugs to relax him." Dr. Glass breathed in before continuing, "And then when he woke up an hour later he was fine."

"'Fine'?" Mr. Mason said.

"His cut had improved!" Dr. Glass said exasperated, "The infection and swelling were gone, along with the massive amount of bleeding he was doing! That doesn't just happen with an hour's rest Tom!"

"So your answer is it's because of the harness?" Mr. Mason said in a controlled voice.

"I don't know. All I know is that what happened is a miracle, and the only logical explanation would be that the harness somehow helps Ben regenerate tissue faster than humans."

"So he's not human?" Mr. Mason said, a clear and powerful tone of anger in his voice.

"That's not what I meant!" Dr. Glass said.

"Hey Michael, where are you?" I heard Ben call. I pulled away from the closed door and moved back to the main area where the Mason boys were. I was surprised when I saw Jimmy there, though I was even more surprised when I saw two fighters carrying some biker dude with a bleeding leg.

"Where the doctor?" one of the fighters asked.

"She's in the back with Mr. Mason." I said. The biker guy scoffed.

"Welcome to the 2nd Mass, where the chief medical officer and 2nd in command can get seven minutes in heaven any time they want!" Despite who he was talking about I had to laugh a little. Hal shot me a disapproving look and I shrugged innocently. I walked towards them and stopped in front of Ben's bed, where he was now sitting up with his leg elevated. I stared at the clean bandages on Ben's leg.

"Weaver wanted me to make sure that Pope got here alright." Jimmy said awkwardly.

"Pope?" I asked.

"The biker dude who just insulted my dad and Dr. Glass." Hal said unhappily.

"Yeah, well I better get going." Jimmy said. He stopped suddenly and turned to Ben. He started to say something, but stopped himself. He opened his mouth again and said to Ben, "Thanks for coming back for us." He looked Ben over with slanted eyes and walked out of the hospital.

"How sincere." Hal said dryly. I had to agree, it sounded like it had pained Jimmy just to praise Ben. I guess prejudice dies hard.

"I could kill every last skitter and people would still hate me." Ben muttered sadly.

"Ben," I said, staring at his leg the entire time. "If you could kill every skitter then people would have a legitimate reason to fear you."

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><p><em>I enjoy Falling Skies a lot, but everytime I watch the ending of Sanctuary Part II, I groan. Jimmy forgiving Ben just like that really ticks me off, it just isn't logical! He hated his guts and feared his existance and this one good act shouldn't change that! So Jimmy is still not liking Ben in this story, another AU moment. There will be more to come._

_Sorry for the late update. School started again and the life of a High School Junior is busy. I'll try to update once a week and I since this weekend is a long one I'll try to get some more chapters done so I have them ready to go._

_There were only four reviews last chapter. Please **REVIEW!** Helps me a lot with your input for making this story better._


	10. A Second Chance

_New character alert. Be ready!_

_A special thank you to DaughterofApollo101, one of my most consistant reviewers. The new character is based off the idea that she sent me. Thank you DaughterofApollo! I hope you enjoy your character!_

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><p><strong>Chapter 10 A Second Chance<strong>

"Michael…" Ben said nervously, "I was just wondering… and I mean don't take this the wrong way… it's just…. I was…"

"For God's sake Ben, spit it out!" I snapped. We were just walking out of hospital wing where I was just hit twice with sucker punches. The first came from Dr. Glass when she was performing her routine physical on me with Ben getting his next to me. She was looking at my forehead and sighed frustrated.

"I'll need to redo the stitches." She said, pulling out instruments of pain.

That sucked, and then while we were walking out of the hospital some hot girls came in and I tried to act charming to impress them. I soon found out that girls aren't really attracted to guys who look like they had the crap beaten out of them, even if they did while trying to protect them. Ben tried some moves too, but after he started to fidget nervously they didn't even give him a chance.

"Do you think I'm attractive?" Ben said nervously, hoping I wouldn't take it the wrong way.

I didn't, since I knew Ben, and decided to delay my answer. "Why do you ask? Because of those girls?"

"Well… yeah. And also because of Hal."

I began to laugh as I led us towards the cafeteria. "He'd tell you that you weren't good looking? I think older brothers are supposed to be jerks like that."

"Hal doesn't say stuff like that, at least not anymore." Ben said. "It's just that while we were at that hellhole sanctuary there was this girl there and she was all over Hal. I just… I just want somebody to like me."

"I like you." I said smiling.

Ben sighed. "You know what I mean."

"Ben, I'm sure that you're capable of getting a girlfriend or just even getting someone to like you. Hal just has it easier than you." I said comfortingly.

"Because he doesn't have razors coming out of back?" Ben said sadly.

"No, because his hair always seems to be gelled and combed perfectly." I said. Ben looked at me and we both began to laugh.

As we entered the cafeteria Ben began to talk about his emotional problems, but my attention was directed elsewhere. Aunt Cindy was in the cafeteria looking right at me with disgust. She then smiled and nodded at Ben. She then held up two fingers and mouthed _'two days left'_.

I wanted to flick her off right there, but also wanted Ben not to notice my bitch of an aunt. It was late in the afternoon so Ben was able to just grab a couple of snacks without standing in line. He handed me some and directed me towards our table, still talking about something. As we sat down I directed my attention at Ben.

"So what about you Michael?" Ben asked.

"I'm sorry?" I said.

"You ever have a girlfriend?" Ben asked. I stiffened at that question, a flood a memories coming back.

'_You have a girlfriend!' My mom shrieked excitedly as I told them that I needed a ride to the movies. 'That's wonderful!' She rushed forward and gave me a big hug._

'_Mom!' I said laughing, 'It isn't that big of deal!'_

_My mom gasped, 'Michael, this is huge news! Oh we need to find you something to wear!'_

'_Well I was just going to wear something casual.' I said. Behind my mom dad laughed. My mom shook her head disapprovingly._

'_No! We will find you something amazing! Something that will really dazzle her beyond words! Daryl, hand me my car keys! We are going to the mall!'_

'_Mom I have Homework…' I said awkwardly, sounding just like I always did when my mom wanted to bring me clothes shopping._

'_We can do that later! Come on sweet heart! Oooooh! I'm so excited!' My mom grabbed me and dragged me to the front door._

'_Dad?' I called out, looking for some help. But he just laughed and waved at me. I my face went red with embarrassment; already I hated dating and I remembered why I don't tell my parents anything._

"I had a girlfriend." I said plainly. Ben looked at me expectantly, wanting me to continue with my story.

"And?" he asked curiously.

"And I regretted it." I said, taking a bite out of the power bar that Ben got me.

"Oh." Ben said.

"What about you?" I asked, wanting to get off the topic of my girlfriend.

"I've never had one." Ben confessed. "They all went for Hal and I was just the 'math geek' brother of the star lacrosse to all the girls. That's literally what they called me, along with Hal."

"Well screw those bitches!" I said, throwing down the empty wrapper to the power bar. Ben's eyes shot open wide in shock, "And screw Hal for not helping you!" I stood up quickly and Ben began looking around to see if I had attracted the attention of anybody.

"Michael? What are doing?" Ben asked nervously.

"Taking a stand! Ben Mason we are going to find you a girl tonight!" I declared proudly. Some of the people at the other tables around us began to giggle and some girls had to leave to stop from laughing. "Well I guess we can rule out those girls." I said.

Ben was red in the face, "Michael please, just sit down!"

"Hey! You were complaining about your poor luck with girls! Now we're going to do something! Come on, we're going to make you look sexy!" I said, smiling at the discomfort on Ben's face.

"Wha-" was all that Ben could get out before I grabbed his hand and dragged him away. I smiled, feeling like I had a serious case of déjà vu.

**Later**

"I don't think I can do this." Ben said nervously, pacing back and forth in discomfort. I rolled me eyes, _'Maybe Hal did try and just ruled it as a lost cause.'_ I thought to myself. I mentally kicked myself for that thought, _'You're here to help Ben, he's your friend!'_

'_Ya, but for how much longer?' _I thought to myself. Part of me felt like I was doing this so when, no _if_, Ben found out that I used him he would really understand that I did think of him as a true friend.

But the other part of me didn't care about that. This part was doing this because Ben was my friend, because he needed help and I would give it without any thought to myself. Because Ben was my best friend.

I shuttered at that word, 'best friend'. I didn't really have many friends before the invasion and the only one I could consider to be my best friend didn't really feel like my best friend. He had a lot of other friends, friends that were way more interesting and more social than me. I did some things that I regret a lot, but I doubt that he much I regretted those things.

Ben was the first person that I could really call best friend, and part of me was proud of that. If Ben considered me his best friend, I don't know. But I sure hope so. Ben's ranting and panicking brought me out of thoughts.

"We should just go Michael! This was a mistake!" He began to walk away, but I grabbed him before he could go.

"No it wasn't! We are going to find someone here for you, just look at all those girls!" I pointed down the hallway or the 'teen hallway' as many people had begun to call it. It was night time hang out for many teens, connected to a courtyard and the library. I thought it would be the best place for Ben to meet somebody. Nobody was paying much attention to anybody not in their conversations so if Ben got rejected than nobody would really notice.

"Ya, but-" Ben began.

"No buts! We didn't just spend hours looking through clothes for you to walk away right now!" I said. Ben did look rather good in his clothes, though I wasn't much of fashion expert. We found him the least dirty clothes around and even got an elderly woman to clean his hair out. Ben was uncomfortable the entire time and if I had a video camera I would have been recording everything.

"What if I get rejected by every girl here? What if nobody likes me! What if-"

"Stop it Ben!" I said, shaking him back and forth. "You can do this! Ok?"

Ben began to nod his head, "Ok." He closed his eyes and began to breathe in and out like an athlete, "Ok, let's go."

"That's the spirit!" I said. We walked down the hallway, looking at all the girls nearby. After I was done helping Ben I should probably find a girl myself. "See anybody you like?" I asked.

Ben's eyes were casing everybody around, looking for somebody nice.

"Nobody really stands out." I begged to differ with Ben, but I was letting Ben do his own thing and it would be easier if I didn't say anything.

"Why don't we go check out the courtyard?" I said. Ben nodded and we exited into the cool night time air. Some lanterns were lit around the courtyard to give us some light, but the stars above also helped. It wasn't as crowded out here like inside and Ben's eyes immediately stopped on some girl. He smiled.

"She is beautiful!" He said pointing to a girl gazing up at the stars. I found who he was looking at and found that he was correct.

Her hair was auburn, pulled up in a slight ponytail that hung down her back. A few strands of hair fell in front of her face around her round eyes, darting everywhere in the sky as if studying every single star. The lantern light was reflecting onto her face, making her seem divine in nature. Her posture was a bit tight and her face looked serious but otherwise she was amazing.

"Well then go talk to her." I said to Ben.

"What? Just like that?" Ben said, getting nervous again.

"It isn't rocket science Ben. Just start off with small talk and then work your way into something more serious. Get her name and try to be charming." I coached him.

Ben nodded, "Ok, charming. I can do charming."

"There you go! Now go get her!" I said to Ben. She had begun to walk away, eyes cast down when Ben stepped in front of her smiling like an idiot. I stood a few feet away so I could hear what they were saying.

Her eyes looked even more beautiful up close, with a crystal blue look to them. She looked over Ben and then returned her attention to his face. Ben laughed nervously.

"What?" she asked Ben in a semi aggressive tone. Ben's shoulder's tightened.

"What?" He asked her nervously.

The girl looked at Ben with annoyance, "Why are you just standing there?"

"Oh! Me?" Ben said. I slapped my palm to my face and groaned to myself; this was going to be a long night.

"I don't see anybody else in front of me." She said, gazing at Ben judgingly.

"Right, well I guess you're right." Ben laughed a little before continuing, "I was wondering… if you and I… or I and you… however you want to say it…" If I was old enough to drink I would drinking for Ben now. The girl looked like she could use a few drinks herself by what Ben was putting her through.

The girl pushed Ben aside and walked away, but Ben's face hardened and he spun around and called out "Wait!"

The girl stopped in her tracks and Ben walked closer to her. "I just… I just wanted to know your name!"

She looked at Ben suspiciously, "That's all you wanted?"

"Well, I was planning on being funny and charming and everything. Can I get a second chance?" Ben pleaded.

She shook her head, "Find another girl." She began walking away again.

"Can I at least get your name?" Ben called out.

She scoffed, "It's not one you'll ever need to know."

"Oooooh!" I heard a voice call out nearby. I turned to see who it was and I felt my stomach drop.

"Crap." I muttered. Terry and his friends appeared as if out of thin air, clapping together and laughing at Ben. Ben's nervous face appeared again while the girl looked defiant.

"Razor back isn't much of a lady's man it seems. Can't blame you though," Terry said, looking at the girl, "I wouldn't want to hook up with him either." The guys began to laugh and started patting each other on the back like they just won a sports game. I was debating with myself whether or not to help Ben. If he was careful he could make a good impression on this girl. But knowing Ben he wasn't the insult type of guy, so there was no chance of that happening.

"Well I wouldn't want to hook up with you." The girl said with her arms crossed in defiance. "I don't think you'd last long." The guys began to laugh behind Terry, patting him the back as if encouraging him. Terry smiled and turned fully to the girl.

"I could show you how long I can last. I'd give you a night to remember." He said as the guys behind him laughed hysterically and bumped Terry on the arm.

"Well I have a suggestion for you guys." The girl said smiling, "Why don't you guys just go screw each other in the bathroom? It looks like you want to with the way your all touching each other." Ben laughed and I had too also, Terry and his motley crew looked stunned. Terry stepped forward with a look of murder on his face.

"You bitch!" He shouted. Ben jumped in between both of them, holding up his hands in defense.

"Leave her alone!" He shouted. Terry was surprised that Ben would try to stand against him, looking him over as if weighing his odds. Ben looked pretty determined though and from what I've seen the past couple of days from Ben, I'm pretty sure that Ben could actually kick the larger kid's ass.

A crowd had begun to from just like when Ben was confronted by that crazy guy in the cafeteria. Terry sensed that things were not going his way and backed off. "Just watch out razor back. And you too bitch!"

The girl gave Terry a rather rude gesture when his back was turned and I began to laugh silently again. The crowd dispersed and it was just Ben and the girl again. "That was stupid of you." The girl said. Ben looked stunned.

"I just defended you." He protested.

"I can take care of myself, so you can drop the 'shining knight in armor' routine." She said. Ben looked hurt by her words and dropped his gaze. She looked around Ben and moved her hand to his back. Ben stiffened as she touched his 'razors' in his back.

"I was considering getting some piercings before the invasion." She said calmly. "Just in my ears and maybe one in my nose. Don't you think this is a bit extreme?" Ben looked shocked.

"What?" He said. She smiled.

"No sense of humor I guess." She said. Ben looked taken aback.

"No I do have one! It's just that nobodies every really, you know, touched them before."

"Oh? Well I guess I'm unique." She said.

"Yes you are." Ben said smiling, but then covered his mouth and blushed when he realized what he just said. She smiled a sweet, perfect smile.

"You still want to know my name?" She asked.

Ben's head shot up. "Only if you want to give it." Ben said cautiously. She smiled.

"I do. I'm Alyssa." She said.

"I'm Ben." He answered without a moment's hesitation.

"Ben. That's a nice name." Alyssa said. Ben smiled.

"Alyssa is also a nice name." She laughed. It sounded amazing and I could see that Ben was practically melting next to her. God I wish I had a video camera.

"Well Ben, it looks like you've got yourself a second chance." She smiled again and walked away. Ben stared at her, smiling giddily to himself. I walked up to him, patting him on the shoulder.

"Well that was easy." Ben said. I looked at him and began to laugh. He looked at me and began to laugh himself.

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><p><em>Thanks to all my reviewers and subscribers.<em>

_I swear, Hal must of had some hair stylist background before the invasion. How he manages to keep his hair perfectly gelled and combed is beyond me. (A little hint to the make up team for Falling Skies)_

_The scene when Ben and Alyssa first meet is based off of a scene from Assassin's Creed Brotherhood, when the young Ezio Auditorie meets the beautiful Cristina Vespuci. It went down in pretty much the same manner and I always find that scene extremly hilarious. The chapter is also named after the side quest that shows this scene. If you wish to see it here is a link:_

_http:/ www. youtube .com / watch?v=vJS-R-ejDVE_

**_I DO NOT OWN ASSASSIN'S CREED OR ANY OF THE GAMES FOLLOWING IT OR ANY OF THE CHARACTERS INVOLVED. ALL CREDIT GOES TO UBISOFT FOR PRODUCING THE GAME AND CREATING AN AMAZING PLOT LINE._**

**_REVIEW_**_ please! I want to hear your thoughts on Alyssa and where you think the story should go. As you should of learned by now I listen to your suggestions._


	11. For Family and Friends

_It has been way to long, and I apologize for that. Junior year has been more draining then I ever thought it could be, and my time to write diminishs ever day. A/N at the end but for now enjoy this chapter!_

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><p><strong>Chapter 11<strong>

**For Family and Friends**

_The blood was beginning to smell terrible._

_My parents had managed to drag my aunt and uncle out of the RV and lay them down on someone's lawn across the street from where the RV was. My mother was washing both of their faces to get the blood off and my father was wrapping up their wounds. They had found the stuff in the RV after they had gotten a nearly catatonic Terry to tell them where the emergency medical kit was._

_Terry couldn't do anything other than stare wide eyed at his parents while Bethany was wailing at the top of her lungs, tears flowing down from her eyes. I tried to comfort her with words but it came out awkwardly and I think I did more harm than good._

'_We need to get them to a hospital Sam.' My dad said. My mom threw down another bloody washcloth, looking ten years older._

'_How? The phones don't work and the nearest hospital is a half an hour away driving!' Mom said._

'_I don't know but we can't deal with them properly if we don't get help!'_

'_Ibb… ibb mommy going to b…bb..be alright?' Bethany cried, tears running do her cheeks and her lower lip shaking faster than I thought possible._

'_I don't know.' I whispered. That was the wrong thing to say since Bethany stared wailing again. Dad turned to me, his face warped in anger._

'_Can you get her to shut up Michael?' He yelled, which caused me to shutter and Terry to yell as if someone had just hit him. Bethany continued to cry, only now louder than before._

'_Daryl don't yell at them!' Mom said. My dad looked flustered, like he wanted nothing else than to just leave my aunt and uncle there. Suddenly there was some coughing and we all screamed when Uncle James started to get up._

'_Daddy!' Bethany called, running out of my embrace and jumping on her father. Terry rushed forward and joined his sister and father, visibly crying now. Uncle James was wild eyed and still had traces of blood on him which gave him a crazed look. He awkwardly hugged his daughter and son before looking up at my mom and dad._

'_What are you doing here?' He asked._

'_Saving you.' My dad said bluntly. My mom gave him a look which said to cool it. It wouldn't do for fighting to start between my dad and my uncle._

_Uncle James began to take in his surroundings, looking as if we had just dropped him on another planet. It was when he saw his wife when things started to go downhill._

'_Cindy?' He said, leaning over to grab his wife's hand. He started to shake her lightly but it began to become more violent when she didn't respond._

'_CINDY!' He was screaming, causing his children to shrink away in fear. My dad grabbed Uncle James and pulled him away from his wife._

'_That's enough James! You need to calm down!'_

'_Calm down?' Uncle James yelled violently, 'My wife is dying and you want me to calm down?'_

'_We don't know that yet James!' My dad said, unable to stop his frustration from forming in his voice. 'But we need to get her somewhere safe so she can get better.'_

'_Look at all that blood!' My uncle screamed, his voice becoming more and more panicked. He turned to my family, accusation written all over his face. 'This is your fault! I told Cindy that we shouldn't come for you guys, but she made us! And now she's going to die! ALL BECAUSE OF YOU BASTARDS!'_

'_That's enough James! Think about your children!' Mom pleaded, gesturing to his two children who were now crying with no shame._

'_They won't have a mother soon!' Uncle James said, his voice full of panic now. Dad grabbed him and pulled him to his feet, holding him face to face._

'_You need to stop this James! We need to get your wife somewhere safe before-' Dad began, but was interrupted by a loud screeching sound._

_Suddenly light was almost everywhere and when it disappeared we all looked up worriedly. Just then Aunt Cindy began to cry out. Uncle James escaped from my dad's grasp and began to cradle his wife._

'_Cindy! Can you hear me?' Aunt Cindy began to cough and grabbed her husband's hand. Terry and Bethany ran forward again, now falling to their mother's side. She looked up dazed._

'_What?' Was all she could managed, stunned that she had woken up at all._

'_It's ok Cindy.' My mother said, crying now herself. 'You're safe, but we still need to get you to a doctor.'_

'_Dad…' I said looking up at the sky, 'Mom… look!' I pointed upwards and I heard my mom gasp in shock. Above the neighborhood were about a dozen ships, all floating in place. Suddenly doors began to open on the bottom of the ship and light poured down onto the ground in a circular shape like in those old movies._

_I was so stunned that I almost missed the dark mass falling down from the ship closest to us. I saw it descend and then crash into the street intersection nearby. Smoke covered most of the area, blocking my view of the object, but I could still see something. Two slits of blue light were visible in the smoke, rising up with the sound of gears shifting and turning….._

Flashes of lights and blood were the last images I saw as I pulled myself from my dreamscape and shot straight up in my cot. I was breathing heavily and saw that sweat was glistening down my chest, a common occurrence for me now. It was the reason that I was now sleeping with minimal clothing also, since sweaty clothing wasn't that fun to wear for the rest of the day.

Shakily I pulled myself out of bed and put on my pants and shirt. _'It was only a dream.'_ I thought.

'_But it did happen.'_ Another voice said in my head. I nodded to myself, acknowledging that it had. These dreams were coming more and more often, and I have to admit that I was starting to worry about my mental well being. I began to walk to the wash bins that were located in our wing, splashing warm water on my face. I looked at myself in the makeshift mirror above the bin, drying off my face at the same time.

The bruising from the Mech attack and Uncle James had started to disappear, but I still looked terrible. I had this tired look about me that made me look like I was up for hours, and it didn't help that I was in desperate need for a shave and haircut. I had considered growing a beard like Mr. Mason's but after some thinking I thought that I would look too much like a lumberjack. I assumed that the Masons had razors since both Ben and Hal never seemed to grow facial hair, so I asked Ben if I could borrow one of theirs. He surprised me however when he told me that they didn't really shave.

Strange genetics I guess.

I looked at the clock and saw that it was only about 6:30 and slid back into my wet cot. After about a few minutes of smelling my own perspiration I got back up and decided to go for a walk around the school. I knew that people were already working with laundry or preparing breakfast so I wouldn't be the only one up. I passed by the Mason's room and thought about waking up Ben but changed my mind. He had a late night last night and also seemed as tired as me.

After meeting Alyssa he began to talk to me about how pretty she was. I was kind of sickening by just how taken he was with this girl after meeting her once. After about ten minutes of him talking about her I was ready for a break and told him to go find her and talk to her. Ben didn't even say good bye to me as he bolted off to find her. Without anybody to hang out with I decided to just head to bed, but I unfortunately had the ill timing of seeing Aunt Cindy who was pointed enough to remind me that I had one more day to get Terry in as a fighter.

I entered the cafeteria early and was happy to find that the workers in the cafeteria had already laid out some food. I stopped moving towards it when I saw Jimmy standing by the food and decided that I was still too tired to get into a fight. So I turned around and sat down at one of the tables, hoping Jimmy hadn't seen me yet.

I was distracted when I saw Terry and Bethany sitting by themselves with only some bread and water in between them. Terry noticed me and looked away as to ignore me, but Bethany followed her brother's gaze and smiled when she saw me.

"Michael!" She called out, running across the cafeteria to hug me. I had to smile at Bethany, she was still too young to fully understand that her parents didn't like me so I really felt she was the last real family member that I had.

"Bethany! How've you been?" I asked smiling.

The ten year old shrugged. "School is really boring. I wish we could use computers again, it would make this writing so much easier."

"Would it?" I asked with amusement while Terry gave me the stink eye.

"Yes!" Bethany exclaimed, "I never realized how bad of a speller I am without the computer to tell me that I'm wrong."

"No! I'm sure you're a great speller." I said.

"I'm not the best." Bethany said modestly. She was so sweet, how the hell did two monsters of parents and an older brother like Terry not twist this girl into ruin? Bethany had grabbed my hand and had begun dragging me towards Terry. "Come sit with us! I haven't seen you in forever Michael!"

"There's good reason for that." Terry said as we sat down, I more reluctantly than Bethany.

"Sorry about not being around Bethany." I said, "But you don't have to worry about me too much. I'm doing ok. Actually better than ok." I knew it wasn't much but I hoped that it would irritate Terry.

"Let me go get you some food Michael!" Bethany offered, getting out of her seat.

"No it's ok, I can go get it myself Bethany." I said quickly, rising slightly in preparation. I did not want to be at a table alone with Terry.

"I'll be right back!" Bethany said, sprinting off towards the food. I stood raised for a few more seconds and then awkwardly sat down across from Terry. He smiled.

"So you're doing better than ok?" Terry said mockingly, "That razor back making life fun for you?"

"Your mom is a bitch." I said plainly. Terry's eyes shot open and he stared at me hard, his face filled with spots of red.

"What the hell did you say about my mom?" He almost shouted.

"What? Is your hearing going now?" I said, wanting to provoke my cousin. "I have advice for you if you want to do ok, stop letting you mom do everything for you. Threatening me so that you can be a fighter is pathetic."

Terry ignored that barb and looked at me threateningly. "You have to make me a fighter!" Terry said, grinding his teeth together.

"I don't have to do anything for you." I said mockingly.

"We took you in Michael. We looked after you, you owe us. Make me a fighter or mom will tell your razor back friend how you used him as your bitch." Terry said, sounding just like his mother.

"Was that supposed to be threatening? Do what I tell you to do or I'll run to my mommy? That's pretty wimpy." I said smiling. Terry probably would have throttled me if he could but Bethany came back at that moment.

"I brought the food!" She said, smiling happily.

"Bethany, go away for a minute." Terry said, his entire posture tight and upright.

"What? Why?" She asked.

"Just go!" Terry shouted. Bethany recoiled back and I momentarily felt bad for her. She began to cry.

"You sound like daddy!" She screeched and ran from the cafeteria. Terry sighed and buried his head in his hands, groaning loudly. Everybody in the cafeteria was looking at us and I grew angry with the look that Jimmy was giving me.

"You are so lucky." Terry said, pulling his head from his hands and looking straight at me. "You are so lucky that your life it so good right now."

I was stunned. Terry was being… nice? No not nice, but maybe not being a jackass? "What?" I said dumbly.

"You," Terry said, pointing at me, "You are so damn lucky! You have something to do with your life. You have a friend and his family that actually give a damn about you. You make a difference and have done so much better without my parents around. But me, what have I got? Two parents who yell at each other all the time, a younger a sister who cries all day, and friends who don't even care that much about you. I have nothing and you have everything!"

I began laughing at my cousin. "Is that supposed to make me feel something? You can't blame anybody but yourself for the situation you're in Terry. You chose your own friends so don't act like they were just thrust upon you. My only friend is hated by the rest of the people here, which means that I socialize without alienating Ben. You mother threatened and _demanded_ that I make you a fighter after her and your father treated me like crap. And should I also remind you that both of my parents are dead! Does that sound like a lucky life to you?"

I got up and walked quickly out of the cafeteria to escape the glares of the people there and Terry. I was only halfway down the hall when I heard footsteps coming up behind me. I jumped to the side and Terry came running past me. He stopped himself and I was able to grab the back of his shirt with my hand and swing him around. He hit the wall and I pushed myself up against him to hold him in place.

"Please!" Terry begged, struggling to get out of my grasp. "I need this!"

"Like I needed people who cared about me?" I screamed, "Like I need an actually family, but instead got you and you're screwed up family?"

"Well I need to be a fighter for my screwed up family!" Terry shouted back, equally as loud.

"So you can impress your mommy and daddy?" I said mockingly.

"Yes!" Terry shouted with full seriousness in his voice. "If I become a fighter then my parents may actually respect me for once in my life!"

"Why in hell would you want their respect?" I said angry, "They are some of the worst people in this entire camp!"

"Their my parents!" Terry said with anger.

"Who suck at their job!"I said. I wasn't able to hold onto Terry anymore and he escaped my grasp, pushing back towards the opposite wall. I was able to stop myself before I hit it and I prepared myself for Terry to tackle me into the wall. Terry didn't charge however, just standing on the opposite side of the hallway with his shoulders slumped over and his body sagged.

"Please," he begged, his voice cracking. "You have no idea what it's like. You had parents that loved you, and you always knew that they did. But mine, they fight all the time. Sometimes it's like me and Bethany don't even exist to them."

"Terry-" I started.

"DON'T!" Terry shouted at the top his lungs. I looked both down both ways of the hallway, surprised that nobody had heard us yet. "I need this to prove to them that I'm someone, that they have a son that they can respect and be proud of! I. Need. THIS!"

I was torn. Part of me wanted to punch and kick him over and over again, to flaunt my power as a fighter to the guy who had teased and bullied me and my friends for as long as I could remember. But another part felt bad for him. I didn't know what it was like to have parents who seemed to not like you. What I did know however was that Terry was being whiny.

"I won't help you." I said.

Terry looked up at me, desperation in his eyes. "Then I'll tell that razor back that you used him."

I scoffed, "Don't bother." I said, "Because I'm going to do that."

Terry was shocked, "Why would you do that?" he said disbelieving, "You would hurt your own friend? What kind of person are you Michael?"

"I'm someone who did a terrible thing." I explained, "I used somebody to get where I am now. That somebody was nobody to me, but he became my friend. My best friend. Now I have to tell him because I don't want our friendship to live on a lie anymore."

"You're lying!" Terry sneered, "You just don't want me or my parents to tell that razor back that he truly has no friends!"

I stepped forward and punched Terry in the gut with all the force I had. I caught him off guard and he fell forward, gasping for breath as he did. I pulled my fist back and tried to mask my face to show a neutral expression, instead of the discomfort I felt rocking through my hand. Terry was on the ground now, coughing violently.

"That's not the reason at all." I said, "I'm doing it for a reason that you could never understand. And his name is Ben, remember it." I walked away, leaving Terry gasping for breath on the ground. He's tough, I'm sure he'll be ok.

I made my way back to the fighter's quarter, my heart beating every step I took. Despite what I said to Terry I was still incredible nervous. My mind was screaming at me that Ben would hate me forever, that he would never forgive me. The majority of my brain, however, compelled me to do the right thing and tell him.

'_He'll hate me.'_ I thought.

'_It's the right thing to do.'_ Another part of me thought.

I was relieved to see that the majority of the quarter was empty, but then that's when I realized that I was missing morning exercises for the soldiers. I thought about going just to give myself a reason not to talk to Ben but I shoved that thought to back of my mind. This is more important to me right now.

I reached the door to Ben's sleeping area and with several deep breaths I raised my hand and knocked on the door.

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><p><em>I hope that you enjoyed, the big scene is up next so stay tune for that!<em>

_Bully's always have a troubled past, remember that the next time you see one._

_I'm terribly sorry about not being able to update like I promised I would. Junior year is a lot of work and most of the time I'm up late doing it. I don't want to give you guys (if your still reading this) story material that is total crap. I want something that is good and that you'll enjoy reading. With that said I want to say that we're coming to the end of this story. I estimate that there will be about five more chapters before the end. I don't know about a sequel yet, so voice your opinion if you want one._

_So to reconfirm that you still care about this story, please **REVIEW!** I promise that I will try to update more often and won't keep you waiting to see what happens next._


	12. Truth and Its Consequences

_Sorry for the short length and deley of this update. I hope you enjoy, this is a somber chapter._

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><p><strong>Chapter 12 Truth and its Consequences<strong>

I didn't bother to wait for anybody to come and let me in to the room. After I knocked on the door to the Mason family's room I opened the door and saw Ben putting his shoes on. He looked up at me and smiled.

"I'm surprised to see you." He said, tying his shoes at the same time. "Don't you have morning work outs right now?"

I shrugged, standing awkwardly in the door frame. "I skipped them."

"Won't Weaver be pissed?" Ben said.

"Meh." I shrugged again.

Ben looked at me suspiciously, "Are you ok?" he asked.

"Ya, ya I'm fine. Um… listen, can we talk?" I asked.

"We're talking right now, aren't we?" Ben said, holding his arms out in emphasize.

I didn't even bother to mention to him how stupid that sounded. Instead I turned around and closed the door, locking as well to make sure nobody burst in at the most inopportune time like they do in movies or something. Ben was looking at me even more suspiciously and I couldn't really blame him for it. Getting locked in a room with his best friend who wanted to 'talk' sounded a bit odd.

"Why'd you-" Ben began, but I cut him off before he could finish.

"Ben, I'm going to talk and I need to you just listen and let me finish. Afterwards you can talk and question me at your hearts delight." I said. _'Or maybe yell at me until you pop every blood vessel in your face.'_ I thought.

"Ok." Ben said, still unsure of what was happening.

I breathed a heavy sigh and decided to start at the beginning. "My uncle told me to stay away from you guys. The razor backs. He said that you guys were nothing but trouble and made it sound like you guys were practically related to the devil."

Ben nodded his head, able to understand what I was saying. He looked like he wanted to say something, but he kept quiet. "Obviously I disregarded that command." I continued, "and now here we are, friends. I'd even say… best friends."

Ben nodded again in agreement, so I decided to continue. "What if I told you that I hung out with you for, for my own reasons."

Ben looked confused now and I knew I couldn't go back, "I… after my parents were killed I wanted to do something. I wanted to fight back, to try to avenge their deaths. I knew that to do that I had to become a fighter, and I was willing to do anything to get that because at that point I didn't care. I didn't care about my life at all. I didn't care if I died or even became a harnessed kid, I just wanted to fight. And to become a fighter I knew that I had to use you."

"Wh- What?" Ben said stunned.

"I used you Ben. I used you shamelessly. I wanted to become a fighter, so I hung out with you and became your friend because I knew that your father could get me in." I said, feeling as if a massive weight had been lifted off my shoulders. Unfortunately, another was just put on them.

Ben face was dark and somber, "You used me?"

"Yes." I admitted plainly, "I did use you. But now, now I regret it a ton. I should never have done it and I feel terrible now, especially since I consider you a true friend Ben."

"You used me!" Ben shouted, his fists clenched and his jaw tight.

"Ben…" I began, but he cut me off.

"All those rumors, they were true all along! You used me and I actually bought it!" Ben screamed at the top of his lungs.

"I used you in the beginning Ben! Before I knew you well enough to call you a friend!" I tried to explain, desperation not doubt sneaking into my voice.

"You probably just stayed friends with me because you felt bad for me. Do you think I can't get any other friends? Because I could make other friends if I wanted!" Ben shouted.

"I stayed friends with you because you're my friend!" I shouted, "You are my only friend here Ben. I'm your only friend here too."

"Why didn't you say something earlier then?" Ben questioned, "Why didn't you just admit to it earlier?"

"I… I was afraid." I said. But I realized that the lie was too weak and Ben saw right through it, scowling as he did.

"You're lying." Ben said plainly.

"I am not!" I countered with another lie, my anger growing with each second. I was about to blow, even though it should be Ben who was about too. I don't know why I was getting so mad myself, maybe because Ben was just shoving the truth of the matter into my face. I wasn't thinking clearly, and I tried to calm myself down.

"All this time I had convinced myself that you were my friend. That you actually cared about me. I was willing to help you become a fighter, I was thankful beyond words when you decided to stay by my side as my friend when everybody was looking at me like some abomination." Ben cried, his body shaking, "But now I know. Now I know it was all a lie."

"It wasn't all a lie!" I protested.

"It was too!" Ben shouted. "You only cared enough so that you could stay on my dad's good side so he wouldn't make your life hell after you became a fighter and you ended our friendship."

That was the breaking point for me, "Ben, I'm your best friend, the only person in this god forsaken place that actually gives a damn about you and your existence! Nobody else does! To them, you're nothing but a disgusting razor back abomination!"

What came next was slightly expected, though not at the power and rage it came with. Ben let out a loud shout and slammed his fist into my stomach. All the air exited from my body as I groaned and fell down to the ground. Ben then pushed me off of him and I feel to the ground.

"I am not an abomination!" Ben shouted. He raised his foot and slammed it into my leg and I let out a disturbing and slurred scream, stifled by only my lack of breath. Ben kicked me one more time in the stomach and back up from me as I gasped for air.

My vision was blurry and my entire body felt unstable from the lack of air in my head. I saw Ben run his hand through his hair and look at me angrily. He wasn't even breathing heavily or sweating.

I started to say something, trying to raise my voice in volume, but only coughed out blood. Ben came down to my level and grabbed me by the collar. "What are you saying now?" Ben shouted, shaking my body as he repeated the question.

After about ten seconds of this I had enough breath to answer. "You're not –cough, cough- not an abomination." I said, wheezing and coughing as I did so. Ben's eyes softened, and I pulled myself closer to my former friend.

"You're a razor back." I whispered into his ear. Ben's fists tightened around my clothing and he yelled one more time, lifting me up and throwing me across the room. I crashed into a desk and heard an unsettling crack from inside my body as I hit the ground. Ben ran over to me and turned to face him, his fist raised. I wanted to say something, but I didn't have the strength left to say anything.

Ben looked me over and began to cry. I felt the tears fall onto my skin as he let me go, backing up to the front of the room. The crying became louder to the point that Ben actually was moaning and sniffling. He looked at me one last time, my bloodied and nearly broken body, and ran from the room.

As soon as he left, tears began to form in my eyes also. Not from the physically pain that Ben had inflicted on me, but the mental pain.

I had just lost my only friend in the world.

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><p><em>Please <strong>review<strong>, I only got two reviews for last chapter. It helps motivate me._


	13. Hospital Drama and Woes

**Chapter 13 Hospital Drama and Woes**

Four days.

Four days of misery and pain as I woke up on the fifth day feeling groggy and broken. I woke up in the medical wing and began to rub my body in an attempt to alleviate the pain. As usual it didn't help too much, though I did feel better than a couple of days ago.

When I finally came out of shock of how violently Ben attacked me I limped my way back to my cot in the fighter's quarter and went to sleep. The next morning I woke up to murmurs and blurry faces around me, each of them saying something about blood. I tried to moan something in response but it must have come out bad because one woman shrieked.

I immediately felt hands grab me and pull me out of my cot. It wasn't until I was in the air that I began to cough and I felt something run out of my mouth. I held my hand up to my mouth and felt the liquid, thinking it saliva, only to find it was thick and red. I was bleeding out of my mouth.

I began to panic but the other fighters restrained me and rushed me to Dr. Glass, who immediately began working on me and told somebody to call Mr. Mason.

"No!" I shouted, grabbing Dr. Glass's hand weakly. "Don't… don't do that please!"

"He needs to see this Michael." Dr. Glass said sharply, "There will be no debate here. Now hold still." She ripped off my shirt and I felt myself go red in the face as her hands traced themselves over my torso, which I was terrified to find was bruised severely. Dr. Glass pushed down on the side of my chest and I screamed a little bit.

"You have two broken ribs Michael. I need to bandage them and inject fluid into the area to reduce the swelling." Dr. Glass said, turning around and motioning for her aid to bring her supplies. I think Lourdes is her name.

Dr. Glass spent the next few minutes cleaning me up when I saw Mr. Mason and Hal walk in. Dr. Glass didn't turn away from me as she finished her last injection into my chest. I sighed as I could breath normally again, though I tensed up again when I realized that Ben's older brother and father were here for answers.

"How bad is he?" Mr. Mason said, looking over my bruised chest.

"Not good, he has two broken ribs and a lot of bruising. Luckily it doesn't look like there's any internal bleeding because if there was you'd be in serious trouble." Dr. Glass said, taking off her latex gloves and throwing them in a garbage bin before turning back to me with a questioning. "Ribs are some of the strongest bones in your body since they have to protect your lungs, heart, and spine. How did you manage to break two of them?"

"Was it your uncle?" Mr. Mason said, not even bothering to be discreet about my abuse problem.

"It couldn't be a person." Dr. Glass said, "If it was they'd have to have a pro wrestler's strength."

'_Your damn right it wasn't a person.'_ I thought to myself, remembering Ben's pained and hurt face. That jackass had broken two of my ribs and I should feel sorry for him? I tried to apologize and he threw it back in my face like I was nothing. Well screw him and the rest of the Mason family.

"Then how did this happen?" Mr. Mason persisted, looking directly at me. I tried to stay strong and appear fine but all of them looking at me eager for answers caused me to shrink away. I hated Ben, but I didn't want to rat him out and appear weak. I wouldn't be the bad friend, or former friend I guess.

"I… I don't remember." I said, attempting to pull off an amnesia act. Mr. Mason and everybody else there looked skeptical.

"You don't remember?" Hal asked.

"There are no signs of head trauma." Dr. Glass said, "Your memory should be fine."

"Well… I…. I don't know what to tell you guys." I said nervously, "I just can't… can't remember. I'm sorry."

"Michael, if you're getting abused you need to tell us and we can do something about it." Mr. Mason said, lowering himself to my level, holding my shoulder to show his caring side. "I won't let your uncle hurt you anymore, you're like family now."

'_Like family.'_ Those words killed me inside and I turned away from Mr. Mason's kind gaze towards nothing in particular. Part of me wanted to tell them, to tell them that their own family member was a freak just like everybody thinks. But part of me didn't want that, which was the side of me that prevailed.

"It wasn't my uncle. And I'm serious; I don't remember who did this to me." I said.

"You said 'who', so you do remember something." Mr. Mason said, "Tell us Michael and we'll make sure that he doesn't get away with this."

"I don't remember!" I shouted to Mr. Mason's face. Mr. Mason's face remained stoic but thankfully Dr. Glass had enough of this questioning.

"I think that's enough for now Tom." She said, putting a gentle hand on his shoulder. "Perhaps he should rest some and then you can come back and talk to him." Mr. Mason looked reluctant, his eyes almost pleading for me to tell him who did this to me. Finally he sighed and stood at his full height.

"I'll send Ben by to check on you. I'm sure you'd like some company for now." I nodded my head and didn't protest because I just wanted him to leave. He nodded to Hal and they both walked out of the ward while Dr. Glass checked my pressure and gave me some Advil to ease the pain more. She didn't bother me with anymore questions about how I got hurt and only said that I would be in the hospital for a few days on bed rest.

The next couple of days were the most boring of my life. There was absolutely nothing to do except lay there and feel useless as people came in go into the infirmary, all of them interested in what happened to me. Some were more discreet in their ability to hide their interest but other just stared at me openly, curious about the boy who always seemed to be injured. Surprisingly I didn't really care that much about the looks they gave me since I was use to them when I was with Ben.

Mr. Mason didn't show up though, or maybe he did when I was sleeping. Apparently the different Mass regiments were planning an assault on the alien structure in the center of Boston and everybody was scrambling to prepare for the assault. Unfortunately my ward mate had plenty to say on that matter.

"Bunch of idiots." Pope said, eating some food he was given. "If they think that this assault is going to work then they've in for a big surprise."

"Why are you worrying about it?" I said annoyed, "You won't be doing anything except laying here like I am while other people die for us."

Pope apparently found that funny. "Well as a matter of fact it does matter to me cause I'm going to be helping in the assault."

Now it was my turn to laugh, "Why the hell would they ask for your help?"

"Cause I'm good with explosives." Pope smiled, setting his food aside. "And that fat general asked nicely."

"Commander Porter?" I said shocked.

"The one and only." Pope said, giving a sarcastic salute. "Lucky for the fighters of this rag/tag band of a military they have somebody who realizes that you can't bring down a structure by just shooting bullets at it or even that they don't have enough bullets to pump into their enemy. Bombs will be their advantage, and Porter came before me in all his majesty and asked me to build him an arsenal of bombs."

I was stunned, "When did this happen?"

"When you were sleeping. Came in and asked, though it was mainly the professor and Porker. Weaver was off in his own world chilling with that tranquil kid."

"Tranquil kid?" I asked. Pope rolled his eyes at me.

"You know, the black kid? Former razorback."

"Oh, Rick." I said. Those cold and emotionless eyes came into my mind as I remembered how he barely reacted when he saw his father buried. I think I was more emotional than him, which is saying something.

"Aren't you friend with one of them? Mason's kid right?" Pope asked, giving me a knowing smile.

"We were friends." I said, though I shot awake when I realized what I just told the most untrustworthy person in this entire encampment.

"Oh not anymore are you? Lovers quarrel?" Pope said in full mockery.

"Shut up." I said, turning my head away from Pope and just praying that he would go away.

My wish came true as Pope was escorted out of the wing on his new assignment the next day. I was relieved to not have to listen to his constant chatter for the rest of the day. Dr. Glass was out and the entire medical wing was quiet when I heard the doors open. When I saw it was Ben I shut my eyes and pretended I was asleep. Ben came up to my bed and I could tell that Ben was standing at the edge of my bed. It was really quiet as Ben probably just stared at me.

"Hal and my dad went out on a scouting trip along with Weaver. They wanted to check out the structure to find its weak points and which path would be best to take for the assault." Ben said softly, "Matt's off helping Uncle Scott work with his machines, making himself useful. Everybody is useful around here except for me."

I heard footsteps and could tell that Ben had come closer to me as he sat down on the side of bed near my legs. "I tried talking with some of the other kids here, non razorbacks first. It didn't go to well and I got hit again. Actually several times. I then went to my brothers and sisters in suffering and found they didn't want anything to do with me. Weird right? Not even accepted by those who suffer just like you. Nobody can tolerate me anymore."

I tried to keep my face as passive as possible, which wasn't too hard since I wasn't feeling to sympathetic. "Maybe they don't like me because I'm still different than them. What, with me still having these razors in my back and them losing theirs. I hear they're actually making new friends. Not me though, because I'm different."

"This morning I went outside and wanted to test my endurance by doing some jump rope. I stopped counting after I got to 300 and just continued to jump rope, over and over again. It was so… so systematic, like an out of body experience. I stopped when Hal found me and looked at the time I had on my stop watch. I was out there for two hours. Two hours and I didn't even feel tired. Isn't that something?"

'_I knew it, he is a freak!'_ I thought to myself. Ben shifted his position, I think so he could turn towards me. "You were right Michael. I… I am different. I am a razorback, not even human. No human should be able to do what I can do, and sooner or later I'm going to end up just like Rick. Mindless and lost without my skitter masters."

"Ben?" I heard a voice call. Ben jumped off my bed and turned to the voice, which I recognized to belong to Dr. Glass.

"Oh… hi. I was just saying hi to Michael, though he's asleep." Ben said shyly.

"Ya, he's been doing a lot of that recently." Dr. Glass said. "Ben have you met Alyssa?"

"Oh ya, I have. Hi, I'm ah Ben." Ben said nervously.

"I remember." Alyssa said.

"Oh right, plus she just said it." Ben said laughing weakly. "I think I'm just going to go then." I heard shuffling as Ben moved out of the room and then the opening and closing of doors as he left.

"Alright Alyssa," I heard Dr. Glass say, "Why don't you get up here and take off your shirt." I heard the shuffling of feet and some movement of objects as I assumed Alyssa got up on Dr. Glass's makeshift examination table. There was some zipping and I figured that Alyssa was taking off her shirt.

"I'll be right back, I just want to get some stuff." Dr. Glass said. I heard her move away and figured that maybe I could sneak a peek at a naked girl.

I opened my eyes slowly and saw that Alyssa's back was to me, or what could be considered her back. My eyes shot open as I saw scars running across her back and arms, some going all the way down to her pelvis. I gasped at her back, which caught her attention as she gasped as well, spinning around to look at me.

Her front was no better with marks running across her stomach and scratches on her wrists. Before I could stare longer she jumped down off the table and put her shirt back on and then rushed over to me.

"You didn't see anything! Got it?" She said in an extremely threatening tone. I was too stupefied to say anything so she grabbed my shirt and shook it violently. "Do you get it?"

"Yes! Yes!" I said, winching at the pain she was causing my chest. I heard another door open and Alyssa let go of my shirt, running out of the medical wing.

"Alyssa! Alyssa where are you going?" She shouted, running after her. She stopped when she reached the door, figuring that Alyssa was long gone by now. She turned around towards me but I shut my eyes to appear like I was asleep again, though I was probably breathing heavier than a sleeping guy should.

I heard Dr. Glass curse under her breath and throw some stuff down on a table. I kept my eyes shut as I processed what I just saw. Ben liked a girl who had scars that not even some of our most battle hardened fighters had. How did she have those, where did she get those? And why didn't anybody know about this?

All I knew was that I was getting sick of all this drama at the 2nd Mass.

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><p><em>I hope that you guys are not.<em>

_Thanks to all my reviewers, though you guys are few..._

_I have the rest of the story planned out and I've decided that there are going to be three more chapters for this story! I'll go over the events of the last two episodes with of course other stuff as well that will make this story unique. So expect to have this story finished by Christmas, maybe I'll even post the last chapter on Christmas day as a treat!_

_So as always... **REVIEW!**_


	14. Making a New Weapon

_Extremly sorry for the late dely on updating, a lot was happening over the holidays._

_Some minor language below and some dialouge from Falling Skies._

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><p><strong>Chapter 14 Making a New Weapon<strong>

After an additional two days in the infirmary I was finally out. Dr. Glass wrapped up my chest again and gave me some more pills to take at specific times each day. I just took the pills, now used to taking some form of medication for almost the last month. I know it sounds weird but Dr. Glass seemed happy to have me leave the clinic. She's been acting weird for the past two days, always leaving the clinic in the middle of the night along with Lourdes. Maybe they were looking for Alyssa who hadn't returned to the clinic, but I doubt that.

My last two days in the clinic were pretty boring and quiet since Pope wasn't there to bother me. Apparently he had done something amazing with the 2nd Mass's bullets and they could now blast through Mech armor. Weaver was obviously impressed so he appointed Pope as overseer of the bullet making division. I doubt the former overseer is happy with Weaver, though I'm sure Pope is thrilled to be doing something even if it is helping the 2nd Mass.

After wondering around for an hour I sat down on a bench outside and began reflecting on the days to come. Mr. Mason had returned back from his scouting mission and apparently he and Weaver had agree that we stood a good chance against the skitters if they could properly place the bombs underneath the structure. Dr. Glass told me that there was some concern as to how far they would make it past the skitters but with Pope's bullets they were confident they could carve a way through.

I heard some noise coming from inside the cafeteria and was curious as to what it could be. I got up and began moving towards the noise where I was shocked to learn that the noise was actually laughter. I entered the cafeteria and saw that a ton of people were sitting down, watching some cartoon movie on the screen. I leaned back against the wall and began watching the movie. It was pretty corny but I enjoyed watching something on a screen, it had been a long time since that happened.

I noticed the Mason kids sitting down on some chairs, all laughing together like one big, happy family. Pangs of jealously and rage went through my body as I observed them, why did they get to be happy when so many others were miserable? Why did Ben get so much love while I had to scramble for drops of it? Ben probably didn't even mean the things he said in the clinic, he certainly didn't look like he was suffering.

It was at that moment when I realized that I missed having a friend. I missed Ben and guilt went through my body as I remember my confrontation with him. Why did I have to get mad? What was the point of that? I knew that Ben would already be pissed when I told him, so why did I allow myself to get just as mad? It was stupid and had lost me a friend. What I regretted most was calling him a razor back. Ben didn't deserve that title, nobody did.

But then I remembered how Ben had reacted, which was overboard and stupid himself. Did he really have to beat the crap out of me and damage my body even more? No, no he didn't. In a way Ben was messed up, but then again, so am I.

"Glad to see your out of the clinic." A voice said next to me. I turned slightly and saw Mr. Mason standing next to me.

I nodded, "Ya." I said, not really wanting to talk with anybody right now.

"It's been almost a week since we've talked Michael, do you remember anything else about the attack?" Mr. Mason asked me kindly.

"No." I said monotone.

Mr. Mason nodded his head and turned towards the movie, though I noticed that he was mainly just looking at Ben. I also noticed Dr. Glass looking over at us, though she turned away and tried to look preoccupied when we made eye contact.

"Michael," Mr. Mason said. "I want to ask you something. Before the landed yourself in the clinic again, did you noticed anything odd about Ben"

"Odd?" I asked, thinking of several good examples.

"Ya, odd." Mr. Mason said, not willing to clarify on the situation. I looked back at Dr. Glass who was once again looking at us through the corner of her eye. I turned towards Mr. Mason and shook my head.

"No." I responded. I looked away from him, focusing my attention towards the stupid movie as if to signal to him that I was done with this conversation. Mr. Mason silently nodded his head and began to walk away, before turning around.

"If you do, please tell me." Mr. Mason said. I nodded my head, not making eye contact with him. After a few minutes when I knew he was gone I turned to leave. I could believe that Ben hadn't told his family about the end of our friendship, he didn't want to draw any more attention to himself since he knew he was some freak.

The drugs were starting to take effect so I wondered back to the fighter's quarter in a daze. When I entered the room the few fighters there gave me odd looks but I ignored them. I fell onto my cot, which I could distinguish from the rest due to the blood on it. Before long I was out of it and dreaming.

"Hello? Earth to Michael!" A voice said, "Wake up!"

"Wh… What?" I said. My eyes came into focus and I saw that Jimmy was standing right above me. "Jimmy? What do you want?"

"Captain Weaver wants to see you." Jimmy said plainly.

"What about?" I asked, trying to get up without causing too much pain to my chest area.

"Beats me." He said, walking away. I grunted loudly as I tried to get up smoothly, finally achieving my goal. As I dressed more appropriately I saw the few fighters that were in the sleeping quarter with me were giving me weird looks. I sighed, realizing it must be because of my bandages and bruises. I finished putting on my clothes, making sure that they carefully did not irritate my bandages and walked outside to Weaver's quarters.

As I walked down the corridors to meet with Weaver I noticed that almost every fighter I passed was looking at me. This time I knew it wasn't because of the bandages which were safely covered under my clothes.

When I reached Weaver's quarters the two guards outside gave me sympathetic looks. I looked at them curiously. "Captain Weaver told me to report to him." I told the guards.

"Of course he did." One of them said, opening the door for me. I looked at both of them again but neither of them would look me in the eye. I entered the room and saw Weaver standing beside a window, looking out at nothing in particular.

"Sit down Michael." Weaver commanded, not turning towards me. I nodded and sat down in a seat in front of his desk. Weaver continued to look outside for a few more seconds before turning around and sitting at his desk. He looked at me, staring over my entire body, making me feel inferior to him. After a minute or so he finally spoke.

"How old are you?" He asked me.

I gulped nervously, "uh, 14 sir."

"14?" Weaver asked. I nodded my head and Weaver began to nod his. "Quite brave of you to become a fighter."

"Thank you sir." I said, my body still tense. Weaver stared at me again, his eyes burrowing into me. After another minute he spoke again.

"Michael I now relive you of your duties to the 2nd Massachusetts. You are no longer a fighter and now a civilian again."

I was stunned, feeling like a train had just ran over me. The blood disappeared from my face and I felt my gut turn in painful directions. I hadn't felt like this since the Mech attack.

"Wh…what?" I could barely manage to say.

"You will report to the armory and disperse of all your weapons to the quarter master. You will then pack your bags and return to your living conditions in the civilian quarters. It has been an honor to have you serve under me. You are dismissed." Weaver said, looking me directly in the eye. After he finished his speech he turned to some work on his desk and began to work as if nothing had happened.

"But sir… why?" I could barely manage to get out.

"Why?" Weaver said, not turning away from work. "Just look at yourself Michael."

"What about me?" I said, not wanting to state the obvious.

"Your too damn injured!" Weaver shouted, slamming his fist down on the desk. I shuttered as his fist hit the desk from shock and Weaver uncontrolled breathing. "Just look at yourself Michael, you're a mess! I can't have you participating in the assault in your condition, you'll just slow us down! How the hell did you even manage to get so broken?"

I sat there mouth open, unable to respond to Weaver's questions. Weaver didn't even seem to want an answer as he continued his rant. "Anyone who can't keep themselves in good condition doesn't deserve to a fighter! It just slows the unit down and with those bastards from space out there we can't have that! We need to be united and you would not help."

"I… I…" I started.

"You can what?" Weaver said, cutting me off. "Serve as a fucking meat shield? Because that's all your good for right now Michael! Now, once again, you are dismissed!"

Stunned and near tears I got up quickly and ran out the room and down the hallway, trying to get as far away from Weaver and the rest of the fighters as possible. I ran into a bathroom and began to cry like a girl. Everything seemed to be falling apart! My friendship with Ben was dead, my life as a fighter was gone, and my body is also falling apart as well! Part of me knew that Weaver was right, but did he have to say it like that and dismiss me entirely from the service? What the hell was that about? He could of put me on leave or something, not kick me out like that! Rage replaced the anguish I felt moments ago and I told myself that I would not let Weaver get to me so much.

I tried to think ahead, what would I do now? There was no way in Hell Ben would allow me to stay in the same room as him and I'm pretty sure it's a death sentence for me to go back to room 117 with my 'family' since they'd kill no doubt. I decided that I would figure it out eventually, but for now I had to stop throwing myself a pity party and man up. I splashed some water on my face and dried my eyes before stepping back outside. I tried to walk confidently around but all the looks the fighters were giving me were wearing me down.

To make matter worse I was on the ground now due to some idiot crashing into me while running out the door of one of the classroom. I was not in the mood for this crap so I got up as best as I could and was ready to start shouting.

That was before of course I realized it was Ben who crashed into me and he gave me a look not of malice or vengeance but of fear.

"I… I'm sorry." Ben spurted out and ran away from me. Scott came running out of the room seconds later, looking at the direction Ben ran.

"What the hell was that?" I asked Scott who looked down at me.

"Oh god Michael! How'd you get on the floor?" He asked me, while helping me off the ground.

"Ben pushed me down." I replied.

"Oh I'm sure he didn't mean to do that," Scott said.

'_Not sure about that old man.'_ I thought to myself.

"It's just that Ben's going through... something." Scott said weakly. I looked at him curiously and he began to elaborate. "Well we were working together inside the room and all of a sudden Ben started acting weird, like, like he was in pain or something!"

"Pain?" I asked curiously. "From what?"

"Well I have no idea! One second everything was fine and the next he's cringing in pain and muttering excuses to leave while running out my door!" Scoot explained.

"What where you doing?" I asked.

"Nothing much, just messing with the radio frequencies on the transmitter. As soon as I started changing the frequency Ben started acting weird." Scott said distressed. "Maybe you should talk to him Michael. You two are friends right? Could you find-"

Scotts words were lost on me as my mind drifted away from the present to the painful past…

'_Keep moving!' my dad shouted to us as another blast from the Mech went off, destroying one of the cars in the neighborhood. Everybody was screaming as the smell of ozone and smoke infiltrated our noses._

_We were sprinting to a nearby house while the Mech aimed its laser and fired at people and objects on the street. The two skitters had also joined the Mech on the ground, not firing at people but grabbing children and dragging them away from their dead families. Uncle James and Aunt Cindy were still weak and slow from their accident so we had to carry them most of the way while Bethany screamed loudly. I wanted to tell her to stop because the Mech would hear us but I knew it was useless. It already knew that we were here. _

_A blast went off, destroying a car with a family inside that was attempting to flee. The car's remnants went flying, hitting the RV. The RV fell over, destroying the satellite and radio equipment on the roof. A loud siren went off that cause us all to stop in our tracks and cringe in pain. The siren stopped and then the Mech began to make weird noise while the skitters were bashing them hands into their hands, also screeching._

_I looked at the Mech again, seeing it spin around, firing at random things all around it. Houses began to blow up and explosion ripped through the air, exploding high above our heads. One of its arms that was flailing around actually hit one of the skitters, sending it flying while leaving a trail of blood._

'_Michael lets go!' I heard my dad shout. I was so stunned by the mass destruction of the scene that I couldn't move at all. Suddenly another explosion occurred, this one closer to us. The blast sent me falling back, landing on my back and winded. I looked up to see where the explosion came from and I saw that the RV and all the satellite equipment with it had blown up. _

_The Mech had stopped making those disturbing moaning sounds, and began turning its body at a controlled pace. I felt somebody grab me from behind and I turned and saw my mom._

'_Sweetie we have to go now!' She said to me, panic laced into her voice. A moan came from the Mech and I looked up to see that it had turned towards us. Another moan echoed and the laser appeared, aimed right at me and my Mom._

'_Charlotte! Michael!' I heard dad scream. My mom got me off the ground and into the arms of my father who had run down from the porch to reach us. My mom looked at us with a sadness in her eyes which brought tears to my eyes._

_My dad let go of me and I fell to the ground. He grabbed my mother and threw her to the ground besides me, the laser now pointed at him. He began to back up farther from us, leading the lasers away with him._

'_DAD' I shouted, now crying nonstop._

'_DARYL!' my mom shouted, tears forming and her voice cracking as well._

_My dad looked at us one last time, crying himself, and said one last thing to us. I couldn't hear what he said though because at that moment the lasers all turned yellow and the Mech fired, blowing the man who had been there for me since day one to pieces. Blood and matter landed all over the place, including on me and my mother._

_Everything went black after that as I fainted._

I breathed in heavily as the memory faded from my mind. The shout of my father, the crying of my mother, both things brought more tears to my eyes. But the painful memory served as purpose. Scott was still talking about something so I stopped him mid sentence.

"Can you show me the radio you were using?" I asked.

"Well of course, but it's actually a radio transmitter to be precise." Scott said, motioning me inside. We went to the back of the room, past piles and piles of junk that Scott hoped the salvage. He had done a good job with the projector, though he needed a better taste in movies, hopefully he could replicate that success with something else.

"Is this it?" I asked as we stopped by some junk that looked like a transmitter.

"Yep, I was just messing with this dial here and everything went crazy with Ben." Scott said. "Now you stay here Michael, I'm going to go find Tom and get his help. Don't touch anything!"

Scott ran out of the room, leaving me alone with a lot of eerie looking junk. Instead of staying in the room I decided to leave and look for Ben. To be fair, Scott did just tell me to go find him before my flash back moment.

After a few minutes of searching I found him, alone in a rather big closet near the part of the school that probably belonged to the maintenance people. He looked up at me, anger and sadness mixed into his expression. I entered the closet, leaving the door open just in case I had to sprint out of there before he could hurt me. Not that I would get far due to my injuries, so it was more so I could alert somebody if I was attacked. I sat down on some buckets opposite of Ben and looked at him.

"I hear you don't like radios." I said softly. Ben didn't grace me with a response, just a dirty look. It was quite after that for awhile and I realized that Ben didn't have to tell me anything. I was the jerk in this situation, I always had been, so I might as well start the conversation.

"Ben-" I began.

"You were right." Ben said, cutting me off. I looked at him surprised.

"Right about what?" I asked.

"Me." Ben said, "My razor back statues."

"What do you mean?"

I was quite after that, and I dared not say anything. Ben finally responded, "I… I can hear things."

"What things I asked?"

"Radio frequencies!" Ben shouted, "Frequencies from that transmitter that only I can hear along with Rick!"

"Rick?" I said confused, when did he enter this?

"Ya, my razor back buddy!" Ben shouted, exasperated. "After I started hearing those frequencies he shows up and tells me not to worry about it, that their coming to get us! He's crazy you know? He thinks that the skitters are our friends and family!"

I had nothing to say to this so Ben continued with his rant. "I keep telling myself that they aren't, and I know they aren't! But whenever I think about that 'evil' that the skitters put us through, I don't remember anything except a sense of… of happiness! Now that I'm back here with humanity what do I have? Dirty looks and beatings from my fellow humans, a family that isn't even a family, and people who use me for their own purposes!"

Ben had actually stood up during his rant, his entire body shaking the entire time. He looked at me and began to cry a little bit before sliding back down to the ground. "How long?" he asked.

"How long until what?" I responded, not wanting to anger Ben any further.

"How long do you think I have until I become like Rick? How long do you think I have until everybody here turns against me? How long… how long until…" Ben couldn't even finish his sentence because he burst into tears. "Everybody is right… I am different… I am a monster."

Ben continued to cry as I tried to think of something to say while resisting the urge to comfort him. He wasn't my friend and I'm not his family, I don't need to tell him everything was going to be ok. After a few minutes Ben had calmed down enough for me to say something. "You're right, you are different."

Ben looked up at me, and began to laugh insanely. "Thanks for that Michael. Friend of the year right here!"

"Are you going to shut up and listen to what I have to say Ben, or are you going to continue this little soap opera drama of yours?" I asked harshly. I knew I had no right to say anything like that to Ben but I needed him to stop crying. My words seemed to work as Ben calmed down, relaxing his posture and face.

"You are different." I stated again, "You're different because something horrible happened to you. Your body changed, and so did your mind apparently because of that harness those skitters put on you. You are like them because like them, you can hear radio frequencies that humans cannot."

"How do you know they can hear these frequencies?" Ben asked.

"Because before a Mech blew my father to pieces two skitters and a Mech were affected my faulty radio systems." I said plainly. Ben looked at me with guilty surprise.

"Your father was… was blown up?"

I laughed at how eloquent that sounded, "Ya, he was."

"You never told me that." Ben said softly. "I'm sorry."

"You never asked." I responded. "And don't be. It happened a long time ago." I mentally kicked myself for how bad I just sounded. I missed my dad a lot and simply dismissing him like that made me feel sick.

"What about your mom?" Ben asked cautiously.

"Perhaps another time." I said, not wanting to relive her death as well right now, which had been just as violent if not more painful. I got up off the ground and turned towards the open door. "For now I want to go visit Scott and use that transmitter again."

"No! I'm not going back there!" Ben said defiantly.

"If you want to prove that you care about the 2nd Mass you must." I said.

"What does going to listen to frequencies just to confirm I'm a razor back have to do with the 2nd Mass?" Ben asked.

"Trust me Ben! Please?" I said, holding out my hand to help him off the ground. Ben looked at me, not wanting to trust me at all after what I did to him. "Please?" I said again. Ben broke after that and grabbed my hand as I helped him off the ground. We exited the closet and began making our way towards Scott's workroom.

It was an awkward walk there, with neither of us saying anything and everybody we came across looking at us. We reached Scott's workroom to find that he was already back there and working on something else. He looked up towards us.

"Ah Ben and Michael!" He said, "I was wondering where you both went. I couldn't find Tom anywhere so I came back here, he must be busy with planning the assault with Weaver. Ben, you had me worried there! What happened?"

"Scott," Ben said. "You'd keep a secret if we asked you too." Scott looked at us both funny, and I felt a little weirded out as well. I wouldn't of started the conversation like that.

"Ben what's the matter?" Scott asked concerned.

"I'm… I'm not sure." Ben said, shifting his stance uncomfortably. I decided to take over from here since Ben couldn't even look Scott in the eye.

"Can you turn it on?" I asked Scott, pointing to the transmitter.

"Turn it on? Why, what for?" Scott said confused.

"Please Uncle Scott?" Ben said softly, finally making eye contact with Scott. Scott looked at both of use again, confusion evident across his entire face. After a few seconds he nodded and sat down to work the transmitter again. I heard a slight hum from it as he turned it on and then looked at us, waiting for instructions.

"Can you start changing the frequencies again?" I asked. "And turn it up?"

"Oh, sure." Scott said, turning some dials. I heard nothing but the creaking of some dials but after about ten seconds or so Ben cringed and groaned at something.

"Ben!" Scott shouted. Stopping the radio frequency.

"Don't stop!" I told Scott, who ignored me and ran to Ben's side. I took matters into my own hands and began messing with the frequency system, turning the dial different directions. I must of hit the right one because Ben once again shouted in distress. I went back to the point where I thought Ben was hurting the most and turned up the frequency power. Ben actually shouted when I did it and Scott turned to me with accusation all over his face.

"What the hell are you doing?" He shouted at me.

"Testing something." I replied, turning up the frequencies' power. Ben shouted again and actually began to shake a little bit in his posture. His shouting was now extremely loud and I was surprised that nobody had come into the room looking to see what was happening.

Scott left Ben's side and pushed me out of the way, shutting off the transmitter. Ben let out a gasp of relief when it was off, though he seemed to be crying a little bit and his body was still shaking. I jumped out of my chair and moved closer to Ben, giving him my body as a support for himself. He looked at with pain and sadness in his eyes.

"I don't… I don't know what I am anymore." He said to me.

"I do." I said, "You're a weapon, a weapon that we can use to help the 2nd Mass."

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><p><em>A plot element that I hope that they cover in Season 2 of Falling Skies is Ben's ability to 'listen in' on these frequencies. Ben is essentially a weapon, especially if he gets the 'powers' that Rick showed off in the last episode of Season 1, and if humans are humans then there will definitly be people who are interested in using or studying Ben and Rick for an advantage over the Skitters. In the flashback I had the Skitters affected by the radio transmission as well since it only seems logical since harnessed kids and Mechs seem affected by it.<em>

_One of the reasons why this update took awhile was because it happens during the episode 'Mutiny' which is my least favorite episode from Season 1. I did not like that Lt. Danner guy (where the hell did he come from anyways? It doesn't really fit together) and how they talked about Porter's death and how Weaver's entire break down thing wasn't that interesting to watch. And then riding out into the sunset with the entire 2nd Mass going to war? Kind of nice but at the same time you have to wonder when they had time to plan that since Weaver had gone bonkers and Tom wasn't really helping with planning (as usual since he's more of a 'I'll jump into it and see what happens' kind of guy)_

_Two more chapters now! I hope to have them out soon!_


	15. The War Hits Home Again

**Chapter 15 The War Hits Home (Again)**

Mr. Mason was running ahead of me, not even bothering to look back and see how I was doing. I can't say I blame him though, no father would be happy to hear that their son can hear invisible radio waves that almost pushed him over the edge.

When I finally got caught up to Mr. Mason he was already in the room with Ben who was lying down on a cleared off table with a rag over his head. Dr. Glass was also there, checking his heart rate and doing other doctor stuff.

Ben looked a lot worse than when I left him. His body was covered with sweat, his hair and clothes sticking to his body while his breathing was sporadic. His skin even looked paler and bags had started to form under his eyes. To say I was shocked is a bit of an understatement, I had never imagined that the frequencies could take such a toll on Ben's physique. I also felt sick, sick that I actually enjoyed watching Ben wiggle in pain as the frequencies power was increased by me. Then I was thinking about getting back at Ben for breaking my ribs, but now I was only thinking about the guilt.

Mr. Mason's face no longer had the calm look I was used to. His face had molded into something truly frightening, displaying a look of murderous intent. It didn't help much that Dr. Glass looked distressed by Ben's condition.

"Tom, I'm so sorry-" She began, but Mr. Mason's hard glare up at her cut her off.

"How did this happen?" he asked. When nobody answered he shouted "HOW?" which caused all of us to shake.

"I- we were working with the radio and suddenly Ben began to hurt and it just…" Scott tried to explain but he too was cut off when Mr. Mason took threatening steps towards Scott. Scott held up his hands as a sign of peace, "I don't know what happened I swear!"

"It was my fault!" I shouted out. "I did this to Ben." Dr. Glass and Mr. Mason looked at me shocked while Scott looked relieved that I had confessed. I don't know if Scott would of ratted me out and I glad that I would never have to find out. I wasn't so happy when Mr. Mason stood in front of me, anger all over his face.

"Why?" Mr. Mason said plainly.

I had no words, I couldn't think of anything that could explain what I did. All I could do was simply say "I'm sorry."

Mr. Mason wasn't happy with that though, his body shaking. "That's all you have to say for yourself!" He shouted at me. I cringed away from Mr. Mason but that didn't stop him, "My son looks dead and all you have to say is that you're sorry! What kind of friend are you!"

"I… I'm sorry!" I begged of Mr. Mason. I thought for a second Mr. Mason might actually hit him but a voice broke through the tension, feeble but loud enough to be heard.

"It's not his fault dad…" Ben said. Scott gasped and Dr. Glass immediately began taking his pulse. Mr. Mason ran to his son's side, grabbing his hand and holding on tightly. "It's not his fault…" Ben repeated.

"What happened Ben?" Mr. Mason asked of his son.

"I… I could hear things…" Ben said, his voice shaky and cracking, "I could hear things and… and I wanted them… I wanted Michael to help me… help me listen to them…" Ben began to cough and make noises of pain. Mr. Mason held his son's hand tightly as I tried to sink into the wall that Mr. Mason had forced me against.

"Why?" Mr. Mason asked again.

"Because!" Ben said louder with strain in his voice, "Because it hurt me. And… and… I thought that… thought…" Ben's body began to slump over and his eyes closed again. Mr. Mason's face returned to a look of fear. He looked at Dr. Glass for an explanation.

"He's alive though unconscious." Dr. Glass said, "I'm not sure what happened, but based on the REM he's going through, his brain hyper activated and began emitting electronic pulses that became too much for his nervous system. His earlobes were strangely effected, though I suspect it was because of their close proximity to the brain. Look," Dr. Glass said, pointing to something near Ben's ears, "There are traces of blood build up around the ear."

Mr. Mason was silent for awhile, simply staring at his son's face. Finally Dr. Glass said something, "Tom I've never seen or heard about anything like this before. And I know that you don't want to hear it but the only hypothesis that could possibly make sense of this is that the harness aftereffects had something to do with this."

"But why?" Mr. Mason asked again, "Why would he do this to himself."

"Because he wanted to help the 2nd Mass." I said, finding my voice. Dr. Glass and Scott looked to me but Mr. Mason's vision was still focused on Ben.

"Help the 2nd Mass?" Dr. Glass asked.

I nodded my head, "Ya. Ben though that if he was hurt by the radio signals then the skitters and Mechs had to be as well."

"Where the hell did that idea come from?" Scott asked.

I was about to fess up and say that it came from me, but considering how mad Mr. Mason was at me already I decided to not say anything. "I don't know. He just told me that because he's a razor back, what hurts him must hurt the skitters."

If Mr. Mason was offended by me calling Ben a 'razor back' he didn't show it. Instead he looked up to Dr. Glass, his face stoic now. "Bring Ben to the clinic. Get him under control and do whatever you have to do in order to get him stable. Afterwards get him to the tunnel with the other civilians and get the hell out of this school."

Dr. Glass looked like she was about to say something but Mr. Mason turned to Scott and continued talking. "Get that transmitter back on once Ben's cleared in the tunnel and start transmitting whatever it was you were transmitting earlier. I want to make sure that we can get the civilians out of the tunnel without any trouble."

"But Tom I don't know what frequency it was!" Scott protested.

"Well figure it out." Mr. Mason said.

"I can't, not without Ben! He's the only one who can hear the frequency." Scott said.

"A frequency that can did this to him!" Mr. Mason shouted, pointing to his son at the same time. "He's leaving this school and getting as far away from that signal as possible."

"Ben is in no condition to travel Tom." Dr. Glass said, "His body is too weak and the conditions that we'll be under while travelling will only make him worse."

Mr. Mason was at a loss for words and I felt like I should say something on Ben's behalf. "Ben would want to help"

I had once again managed to say the wrong thing as Mr. Mason turned to me again, a calm fury in his eyes. He stood up straight and looked me dead in the eyes. "Michael, you almost killed my son. I don't give a damn what you think; and don't you dare presume that you know what my son wants." He said in a monotone voice.

My courage was gone at that instance and I averted my eyes away from Mr. Mason. I felt weak again, just a kid trying to make it to the adults table at a family dinner. I never liked the kids table then and I certainly don't like it now.

"Get Ben to the clinic now." Mr. Mason said.

"I need help to carry him." Dr. Glass said plainly.

"You'll have to manage it yourself; Scott needs to get that frequency back."

"I can't do it without Ben!" Scott repeated.

"I don't care, figure it out." Mr. Mason said agitated. Dr. Glass looked agitated as well.

"Tom your being unreasonable." Dr. Glass stressed, crossing the table to stand by Mr. Mason's side. "Ben is needed here, you know that. I can bring him back to my clinic, get him patched up and then we can get him to find the signal."

"He's not coming back here." Mr. Mason growled.

Dr. Glass looked exasperated and gave up fighting with Mr. Mason. She turned around and lifted Ben off the table, holding him cradle style. She wasn't able to move well so she dropped Ben's legs to the floor and supported him with her body. She gave Mr. Mason one more stern look and began limping out the door with Ben in tow.

Mr. Mason turned to Scott who nodded his head and began working with the transmitter. Mr. Mason turned to address me but Scott said something first. "There's something wrong."

"What? What's wrong?" Mr. Mason asked.

"It's the generator, it looks like it's run out of gas." Scott said. "I told those kids down at motor pool to fill it up! But do they ever listen? No!"

Mr. Mason looked at me, "Looks like you have something to do." He said, "Go grab a spare can from the storeroom and bring it to motor. Once your done with that why don't you come back here and help out Scott since you seem to love playing with that transmitter so much."

"I'm sorry!" I said again for no other reason but to stress that I truly was sorry. Mr. Mason didn't respond or look at me and instead moved out the door to go who knows where. I looked up at Scott who was staring right back at me.

"Thanks for not ratting me out." I said.

Scott nodded to me, though still looked stern. "I don't know what the hell you were trying to do to Ben, but I agree with you. Ben would want to stay and help."

I gave a small smile, at least we agreed on that much. "I should go grab that spare can so we can start working." I said, moving to leave the room.

Scott nodded his head again and turned towards the transmitter. Before I left I think I heard him mutter something under his breath about it 'not mattering'. I moved as quickly as I could down the hall ways towards the storeroom, eager to grab the can and get back to Scott. I thought about going to check on Ben before Scott but decided not to since Mr. Mason would probably be there.

I grabbed the can and made my way down to the motor pool and awkwardly asked for them to fill up the generator. The head mechanic, a woman probably in her late 40s, wasn't too happy to be taking orders from me but once I said I was here on Mr. Mason's behalf she at least became civil. As I was leaving I heard somebody cough 'razor lover' and some soft snickering.

I made my way back to Scott's workshop and was shocked to see the condition of it. Parts looked like they had been tossed everywhere, glass on the windows was cracked, and small pools of blood were on the floor. It was then that I noticed Scott on the ground and I ran over to him.

I lifted him off the ground and checked for his pulse. I was relieved to feel it and I gently put Scott back down on the ground and ran out the door.

"HELP! Somebody help!" I shouted. Luckily there were two fighters at the end of the hallway who came running towards me.

"What is it?" one of the asked.

"It's Scott, he's been hurt!" I said, pointing to Scott. The fighters saw the condition of the room and drew their guns, advancing in slowly. I wasn't too happy with how slow they were moving so I rushed passed them and began lifting Scott off the ground. The fighters eventually got to me and helped me pick Scott off the ground, actually take him out of my grasp and rushing him out of the workshop. I was alone again and I suddenly felt a sense of dread and fear. _'Who would attack Scott? What were they looking for?'_ I asked myself.

Besides everything that was thrown around it didn't look like anything was stolen until I saw the transmitter. It looked like somebody had smashed the protective cover off of it and grabbed something from the inside. I didn't spend too much time thinking about it and left the workshop, heading for the clinic which is no doubt where Scott was taken.

I arrived and saw that the two fighters were standing guard while Scott was now sitting up on one of the beds while Dr. Glass treated his wound in the back of his head. Mr. Mason was already there talking to Scott.

"Rick was just hanging there like some sort of bat! Don't ask me how, but he was!" Scott said flustered, "He leaped towards me and the next thing I know I'm waking up here!"

I wasn't quite sure what to think about that last statement, and apparently neither did Mr. Mason or Dr. Glass who looked at Scott with curious stares. "He was hanging like a bat?" Mr. Mason questioned.

"Yes!" Scott insisted, "Before he knocked me out though he attacked the transmitter, smashing the cover off it!"

"Something was stolen from the transmitter." I spoke up, "It doesn't look like the whole thing was busted, just the outside of it."

"I can't believe he would do this." A voice said behind me. I turned around to see Ben propped up on one of the hospital beds, looking considerably better. I don't know what Dr. Glass gave him but whatever it was she's got to be the best doctor in the planet, not that there are many left I guess. Or perhaps it wasn't even her; maybe it was just the harness remnants healing Ben in some way.

"It doesn't matter what might have happened or did happen," Mr. Mason said, "We need to find him and get that part back before he damages it."

"If he hasn't destroyed it already- OW!" Scott said, cringing in pain from the anti-bacterial rag Dr. Glass was dabbing the back of his skull. She looked at Mr. Mason and gave him a sideward glance and handed the rag to Lourdes. They both moved to the side and began talking quietly while Scott began groaning in pain. I looked over at Ben who was staring right back at me, his face neutral.

I decided now would be a good time to check on Ben and walked over to him. "Hey." I said weakly.

"Hey." Ben repeated back.

"Are you feeling ok?" I asked.

Ben shrugged at me, "I guess. I no longer feel like my head is going to explode."

"Ya." I said awkwardly, "Ben I'm sorry for doing that to you."

"It's ok, you had to make sure that the frequencies would have a strong enough impact." Ben said, giving a small smile.

"No," I said not wanting to keep anything from Ben anymore, "It wasn't that Ben. I wanted-"

"To help the 2nd Mass." Ben said, giving me a knowing look. I realized that Ben knew exactly why I hurt him, but decided to move past it. I nodded my head in appreciation and we both sort of stood and lay there silently. Mr. Mason came over to us, or to Ben I should say since he ignored me entirely.

"I have to go find Rick." Mr. Mason said.

"Are you going to hurt him?" Ben asked, "Because it's not his fault that he's like that!"

"I know Ben, I know." Mr. Mason said, though I doubted that he fully did. "But regardless of that Rick is a danger to the 2nd Mass and himself. We need to find him and help him."

'_Just like you've helped him since you've found him.'_ I thought, wanting to say that out loud. That would be the wrong thing to say since I think Mr. Mason would hurt me, though Ben would probably start liking me more.

"Now stay here Ben. I'll be back with Rick unharmed." Mr. Mason said, stressing the 'unharmed' part for his son's benefit. Ben reluctantly nodded and Mr. Mason left, not even giving me a look as he left. It was silent except for the moans for Scott and I thought about what I could say to Ben. Before I had a chance to say anything though, Ben jumped off of the bed and attempting to balance himself.

"Ben!" I said shocked.

"I have to find Rick." Ben said, his face molded in concentration as he walked forward. He didn't make it far as his legs gave out and I had to catch him before he hit the ground.

"You need to get back in that bed." I insisted.

"Not now. I need to find Rick!" Ben whispered back fiercely. I shushed him and looked over to see if anybody had seen Ben get out of bed. Dr. Glass was gone and Lourdes's back was to us along with Scott's. I looked at Ben who was starting to look a lot better than about ten minutes ago, color returning to his face and the droopy eyes disappearing.

I sighed to myself. "Fine, if you want to find Rick let's go find him." Ben nodded to me, happy that I yielded. I looped Ben's arm around my back, supporting his body on mine, and then with my free arm grabbed the curtain around Ben's bed and closed it. "But if something happens to you I'll kill you." I said.

Ben chuckled, "What if I die?"

"Then I'll kill you again." I said, sneaking out of the clinic before anybody could stop us.

We snuck through the corridors, moving slowly due to me having to carry Ben and not wanting to be discovered by somebody who might know that Ben was suppose to be in the clinic. Things got easier the more time that we walked around as Ben seemed to slowly be recovering from his ordeal. After about fifteen minutes of wondering around Ben was able to walk as fast as I could, which still wasn't that fast due to be injuries.

I thought about asking him how he felt, but thought better of it. That question would lead to more questions which would eventually lead to the topic of the razors in his back. Since I was still recovering my friendship with Ben right now after almost killing him, perhaps that wouldn't be the best topic to talk to him about.

After another ten minutes I had to say something. "Ben we've been searching for almost a half hour, if we or the fighters haven't found Rick then I think we should give up."

"We can't, not until we find him." Ben said stubbornly. He was now able to walk by himself and was moving faster than me, causing me to trudge along slowly after him. My entire body was aching from all this walking and I wanted nothing more than to just lie down and sleep for awhile.

"Ben I need to rest." I finally admitted, leaning against one of the lockers nearby. Ben turned around to me, some annoyance showing in his face.

"We don't have time, we've got to find him!"

"You go on ahead then." I said, "I'll catch up with you later."

"You won't be able to find me though." Ben pointed out.

"Just go Ben and find Rick. I'll be fine and if I don't find you I'll just head back to the clinic." I said, getting exasperated with Ben now. Ben sighed and set off on his own, leaving me to recover. For once I was hoping for my life to be like the movies where the main character has a ton of energy and isn't slowed down by old battle wounds. Of course as with everything else in reality I was hurting badly and if this was a movie the skitters wouldn't have nearly killed off all of humanity.

After a few minutes of leaning against the lockers I heard shouting and running footsteps. Two fighters came running down the hallway, screaming about finding Mr. Mason. "Mason's freak kid has found the other razor back!" one of them shouted, "Were is Mason?"

"Outside in the front." Somebody told the fighter who only grunted in response and then set out running for the front. I followed behind them and when I heard a gunshot I began running faster through the now screaming crowds of civilians fearful of a skitter attack.

When I reached the front I saw Ben being lead back inside the wall by that chick Maggie who was followed by Uncle James's pissed off friend. "I didn't mean to hurt the razor back!" he protested, his face contorted into hatred. "I only meant to protect all of us."

"Some hero!" Maggie spat back, sitting Ben down and checking him over. Uncle James's friend looked pissed.

"Give me back my gun bitch!" he shouted, reaching for the extra gun Maggie had around her shoulder. Maggie stopped him before he grabbed it, instead grabbing his arm and then slamming her fist into his face. He groaned and fell to the ground as everybody else looked stunned.

"Under Tom Mason's orders I relieve you of your duty soldier." Maggie said in a clear and authoritative tone. She turned to some other fighters standing by, "Get him out of here and make sure he's somewhere he can't do any harm."

The two fighters she was looking at seemed stunned by her actions but recovered and dragged that bigoted asshole away from everybody else. There was no doubt in anybody's mind that Maggie was in charge.

"Ben!" I shouted, limping towards my friend. Ben looked at me shocked, gasping when I grabbed him by the shoulder. "Is he ok?" I asked Maggie.

"He should be, just a bit stunned by that ass and his damn shooting." Maggie said.

"I didn't mean to hurt anybody." Ben muttered to himself. "I don't get why he was shooting at me."

"It's ok Ben, he's just an idiot." I said, unable to come up with any other comforting words.

"The skitters are coming! He was right about that!" Somebody shouted amongst the fighters, "And now we're one man short!"

Maggie's expression showed annoyance now, "There must be somebody else we can call on."

"Everybody else left with Captain Weaver." Somebody else said, fearing showing in their eyes. I looked around and saw that most people seemed scared. Now I was scared, scared because of what some people might do because of their fear. One person had already tried to kill Ben, who would be next?

"I can fill in." I said as confidently as I could. "I was trained as a fighter so I can help."

Maggie looked at me skeptically, but Ben jumped in before she could say anything. "He's telling the truth, he can fight. My dad I'm sure will agree to it also." Ben said. I resisted the urge to roll my eyes; Mr. Mason didn't want me near his son let alone a gun. But Maggie seemed convinced at that point, or at least less skeptical.

"Alright," she said, pulling the gun off her shoulder and handing it to me. "Your first job is to get Ben to Dr. Glass to make sure he hasn't got anything wrong with his brain. Then report back here to prepare for guard duty."

I nodded my head and helped Ben up, who didn't really need help and once again helped me limp away quickly before Maggie could change her mind. As soon as we were out of sight Ben asked if we could go to Scott's office instead. That was fine with me since I didn't want to spend any more time near the clinic.

We got to Scott's workshop, who hasn't returned yet from the clinic himself. "What are we doing here Ben?" I asked as I sat down on a seat nearby.

"We're going to help the fighters outside defend us if the skitters come knocking." Ben said calmly. "You were right Michael, I am a weapon."

I looked at Ben, concern on my face. "Ya well screw what I was saying. Ben the last time we did that radio signal thing you almost died."

"Well it will be worth it if I can use that power that save a bunch of lives." Ben countered.

"It's not a power Ben," I said, "and you shouldn't be hurting yourself like this."

Ben laughed, "Oh, so now your against hurting me? Earlier you were all for it _and_ for using me as a weapon."

I looked away from Ben, "That was different." I said. _'When I still hated you and didn't see you as my best friend.'_ I thought.

Ben was about to say something but Scott came in, surprised to see us. "Ben! And Michael. I think you boys should leave before we get into any more trouble with that radio."

"No, we need to use the radio Uncle Scott." Ben said, "You can program it to the frequency that can harm the skitters and I can tell you what that frequency is. And yes, I know it almost killed me and I don't care! I want to help people and not feel useless!"

Uncle Scott looked at me accusingly, "Did you plant these ideas into his head?"

"No." I stated.

"Scott," Ben said, stepping towards him. "If this works then my dad will make sure your research and work receives top priority and isn't consider to be just an old man playing with scrap."

That did it for Scott, who nodded his head. "Alright, but the transmitter won't work without the part that Rick took."

"That's fine, my dad is chasing him down and will be back with the part that you need." Ben said confidently.

While Ben and Scott began working on the radio I looked at my friend stunned. Ben had changed a lot from the shy, scared kid that I had met in the library two months ago. Here stood a Ben who was willing to endure pain and suffering just to help people, people who hated him and considered him unnatural. And the thing is that they were right, Ben _was_ unnatural and I have the scars and stories to prove it. But Ben had accepted that unnatural statues and was willing to live with it anyways now, or at least for the moment. This new Ben… I wasn't sure what to think of him.

About an hour later Mr. Mason returned with Rick and the part that he had taken from Scott. He was pleased to hear that the man who had shot at his son was no longer on duty, but I don't think he was happy to hear that I had replaced him. Mr. Mason didn't say anything but gave me a look that made all his feelings clear. I just smiled and hoped I didn't let him down at any time.

He also brought back bad news that a Mech attack was imminent. He didn't tell anybody how he knew but most people guessed that Rick was somehow the cause of it. I don't like playing stereotypes, but I'd have to agree with this one. Rick had probably screwed us over.

Mr. Mason didn't waste anytime though and he organized his fighters while preparing for the civilians to escape through an underground route. Mr. Mason looked pretty stressed out by having all that control, but he was actually doing a pretty good job at commanding. Perhaps even a better job than Weaver?

One thing that added to Mr. Mason's stress was the fact that he had to deal with his two remaining kids with him. Matt, being the little kid he was, evacuated without question. Ben though was a different story. "I can do this Dad!"

"I know you can but I don't want you here when the attack comes!"

"I'm sorry Tom but he's right! This is our one shot and if they change the frequency after Ben's left I won't be able to find it again."

Mr. Mason sighed deeply and looked like he was in deep thought. He then began shaking his head furiously, refusing to leave his son in the crossfire's. Ben looked aggravated himself and moved up next to his, "Dad I know what their saying about me and Rick. How we're infected by these harnesses. But if I can use it against them, if I can become a… a weapon against them, then I can use what they did to me to get back at them. You have to let me!" he pleaded.

Mr. Mason looked at his son with a mix of love and worry. He looked at Scott and even at me before turning back to his son. Maggie ran up to the door, sticking her head in the room. "Hey, Scouts have Mechs spotted within a mile." She then ran off with a bunch of other fighters following her.

Mr. Mason turned back to his son, "If I say run you run." He said and began moving out the door. "Michael, you're with me out front."

My body stiffened as I realized I was going to be out on the front lines literally. Ben turned to me concerned but I gave him a reassuring smile. "I'll be fine." I said, my doubt pretty evident.

"You'll hurt yourself out there shooting off all those rounds." Ben said.

"And you'll get hurt finding that signal won't you." I said, smiling. Ben smiled too and actually hugged him. I was shocked by the gesture but returned it quickly. We broke apart when he heard shouting outside and I ran out front, following Mr. Mason's path.

I made it out front and was quickly assigned a position to hold. I was positioned to the left of Dai, with a flag pole directly to my left. Mr. Mason was located in the center of the barricade, and I noticed Jimmy and Maggie nearby, the former looking pretty concerned. I couldn't blame him though, I probably looked the same as him and everybody else. Except for Dai, Maggie, and Mr. Mason none of the other fighters are considered to be real fighters. There mainly just patrol people who never got much experience with fighting actual alien targets. I think one of them actually vomited when they heard the Mechs signature moan coming from around the block.

"Here they come!" Mr. Mason shouted, "Wait for my signal before shooting!"

"God I hope these bullets Pope gave us work." Dai muttered to himself. I had never even considered that aspect and suddenly grew even more concerned. I saw Maggie lean forward and whisper something into Jimmy's ear. Jimmy suddenly looked a lot more confident, holding his gun tighter.

"Easy!" Mr. Mason shouted. A single Mech came into view, it's loud steps echoing through my head. It was no longer moaning, but seemed to be examining the entire area.

'_Come on Ben.'_ I thought to myself, _'Why isn't it stopping?'_. I looked up at Mr. Mason who also seemed to be having the same thoughts.

The Mech was now close enough that the ground was actually shaking around us. The barricade began to shift violently, sending a wave a panic through some of the fighters. The Mech stopped right before our barricade and let out a deep moan which made several people gasp, including myself. The moan ended the dreaded sound of the Mech loading and preparing its gun assaulted our ears.

"OPEN FIRE!" Mr. Mason roared, shooting off his bullets first. There was a massive commotion as fighters got up from hiding and began shooting through the barricade and the roof. I readied my gun and began firing, bracing my body for the pain of recoil from the gun. It did hurt, but it could have been much worse. A lot of bullets were missing the Mech but the ones that actually hit it seemed to be doing some damage. The Mech actually began taking steps back and began to try and shield itself from the barrage of bullets

The Mech wasn't falling over dead and instead pulled up its gun and began firing back at us. Its own bullets assaulted the front of barricade first, forcing everybody there including myself to duck behind cover. A couple of the Mechs shots managed to get through the barricade and two fighters feel down, clutching their wounds in pain as blood flowed from them. The Mech changed its weapon of choice and fired a rocket at the right side of the barricade, injuring three people and causing a lot of people to fall to their knees.

I was the first back on their feet, but I was dazed and my head was ringing. I stood up from behind the barricade and fired at the Mech. The only problem was I didn't prepare properly before I shot and crutch of the gun dug into my rib cage. When I fired my gun the recoil bounced off the gun and onto my still mending rib cage, which sent massive waves of pain through my body. I cried out in agony, tears actually coming from my eyes, and hit the ground hard.

From the ground I saw that Mr. Mason and the others were fighting again, shouting profanity at the Mech and firing away. I looked over to where the Mech had launched its rocket at us and saw two corpses with massive burn marks on them. One person who was burned badly was still alive and they were screaming in agony and begging for something. The person's eyes suddenly went wide and soon their body seemed to relax. I closed my eyes, knowing that person was dead.

I wanted to crawl away from all the violence, to hide from it, to escape with the rest of the civilians into the tunnel and never look back. But I knew I couldn't do that, that I had a responsibility to the 2nd Mass. Or so I keep telling myself. I get to my feet and while still crying out in pain ready my gun.

I stop when I realize that the Mech had hit the ground and a massive amount of smoke was coming from its body. The survivors on the barricade began to cheer out in happiness, hugging and patting each other on the back. Mr. Mason gave a small smile and began to chuckle. Jimmy was overjoyed and Dai looked happy himself. Maggie remained her neutral self, though I could tell she was happy about something. I smiled too, happy that we had done it even without Ben's help.

The happy mood on the barricade quickly dispersed when more moans were heard. Everybody's attention turned to outside the barricade, breath held, and guns being gripped tighter. Soon the barricade began to shake even more violently, a few people actually stumbling on top of their posts. One person actually screamed out "NO!" in a chocking tone when they saw the six Mechs marching towards the school.

"Everybody get down! Get Down!" Mr. Mason shouted. Everybody was quick to follow those instructions, though a few still remained standing, shocked by the amount of Mechs coming to attack.

"Ammo count!" Mr. Mason shouted next, checking his own. People began shouting out ammo numbers and it quickly became clear we didn't have enough to take on all the Mechs. Everybody was crouched over now, nobody saying a word as we all realized we were about to die. A few people on the roof ran away scared, not caring what Mr. Mason would do to them for their cowardice. Mr. Mason saw them leave but realized he could do nothing to stop them.

The Mechs stopped outside the barricade near where the dead Mech lay. They all let out their moans at the same time, the noise making it seem like our ear drums were about to break. The stopped and the Mechs once again began preparing their guns for firing. Everybody looked at each other, a wordless goodbye passed between everybody.

I looked over at Scott's workshop, thinking that I might get to give Ben a nod goodbye. I was stunned when I actually saw Ben climbing out of the window and running towards the Mechs with a pair of jumper cables in his hands. "BEN!" shouted in surprise. "What are you doing?"

"Ben get back!" Mr. Mason shouted out, getting down from his main post. At that moment the Mechs open fired and people began to scream. Mr. Mason gave the order to fire again and angrily began to fire himself, unable to leave his post now.

I on the other hand didn't have to inspire courage so I jumped over the barricade to Ben's side. "We have a signal, we just have to make it stronger! We can use the flag pole!" Ben told me over the battle ensuing right next to us.

I understood what Ben was saying and I followed Ben out to the flag pole. An explosion lit up the area I was just stationed and I fell onto the ground, though Ben remained standing. "Do it already!" I shouted at him. Ben nodded and attached the cables to the flag pole, causing sparks to appear and an invisible sound to bounce off the metal.

The Mechs began to screech as Ben fell to the ground in pain. I crawled up to Ben and threw my body over his to protect him. Some people from the barricade were screaming they were out of Mech ammo and suddenly the fighting stopped. Ben was underneath me, writhing in pain, and I was afraid to look up at the battle just in case we lost. I finally summoned some courage and looked up, and a smile came to my face.

"Their retreating…" I said unbelieving. "Their retreating!"

Ben looked up at the scene, blood once again coming from his ears. He was shocked but quickly a smile came to his face. We both began to laugh as the defenders on the wall began to cry out in victory. Mr. Mason left his post and was already beside us. "Ben are you alright?" He shouted concerned.

"I'm fine dad, I'm fine." He said smiling. Mr. Mason hugged his son and I took a step back to give them their space.

I looked out at the battle scene and smiled. We had actually won, defeated the odds and came out on top for once. I began to laugh too when I thought of the victory celebration that was no doubt going to be thrown.

My laughter turned to wheezing quickly though and I fell to the ground. "Michael!" Ben shouted out shocked, running to my side. I kept gasping for breath, now facing Mr. Mason and Ben. Mr. Mason shouted something and things started to go black. I felt my chest constricting and put him hands to my sides were it hurt most. It felt warm there and I realized I was bleeding from something badly. Ben was screaming but I could understand anything he said.

Then I felt my eyes go wide and I breathed out heavily. Darkness followed and my body relax, my pain gone.

* * *

><p><em>So I can't think of any excuse for my 6 month absence other than I was lazy and had a lot of work. The final chapter will be up in the next week, that much I promise.<em>

_Please stay tune and Review!_


	16. The Uncertain Everything

**Chapter 16 The Uncertain Everything**

It was cold. I could feel the cold flowing through my body, seeping through my skin and straight into my bones it felt like. My body didn't shiver or react to the cold though, my mind simply accepted that it was cold and refused for my body to move. Moving meant pain, and I had already felt enough of that in my short life span.

When I first woke up I realized that I was in the clinic again. I groaned, remembering how much I just hated this place. The next thing I noticed was that there was something strapped to my face, restricting the movement of my mouth and forcing something down my throat. I began to panic and cough as I tried to get the tube out of my throat. Hands came from all angles and forced my own hands off of the mask. Voices followed telling me not to take the mask off, that it was helping me live. I didn't listen as fear ran through my entire head and I fought back against the hands. A sudden pain in my chest stopped my struggle and my head flew back in pain. I felt tears come to my eyes and then a prick into my veins as everything went black again.

The second time I woke up it was only for a few seconds. My brain realized that the tube was still in my throat and accepted it like the cold temperature. The second thing it realized was that Ben was sitting next to Ben. He said something but I passed out again before I could respond.

The third time I was able to keep my eyes open at last. The tube had been removed from my throat but the mask was still there pumping oxygen into my nose and mouth. It was dark outside so there was only a desk light to illuminate things which allowed me to notice Ben sitting next to my bed. He smiled when he noticed me staring at him, "Hey."

I tried to smile, hoping it didn't come off as a grimace. "Hey… how you….how you doing champ?" I asked, breathing deeply in between what seemed each word. My chest was burning and every breath felt like my last. I hope they weren't.

"Champ?" Ben asked, slightly amused. "I didn't do anything really 'champ' worthy today."

"Don't make… don't make… don't make me slap you." I said, "You… you saved u-us."

"But you got hurt." Ben said sadly. "You weren't protected."

I laughed but it came off more as a rude grunt, "Ben… I can't e-even protect myself." Ben nodded his head, not really believing what I said. "Wha-What happened t-to me?"

"I can answer that." Dr. Glass said, stepping out from the darkness of the clinic. She smiled at me, "I'm glad to see that you up now Michael. You gave us one scare too many for the past few hours."

"Sorry." I managed to say.

"It's ok. Though it's a bit sad how this place is becoming like a second home to you." Dr. Glass said, and ironic smile forming on her face.

"Very. What's wrong with… me?" I asked.

"You were out fighting when you shouldn't have been." Dr. Glass said, all humor lost from her face and her tone dead serious. "I told you not to do anything to stressful and you decided to go and pick up a gun. While you were blasting that thing off the recoil hit you in the rib cage at one point, shattering one of your ribs again. You would have been fine and I could of treated that but Ben told me that an explosion went off which knocked you to the ground. The explosion caused your rib to puncture through your skin and into your lung partially, filling it with blood. The tube that was down your throat was to help your breathing since it was still eradicate after the surgery I had to perform on you."

"God…" I said, at a loss for words. Dr. Glass's anger also disturbed me as I felt like I had truly upset her. I did ignore her but can't she see it was for an important reason?"

"You could have died Michael! We were so lucky that we were able to realign your ribs and seal up the lung before you lost the lung completely." Dr. Glass said.

"I'm sorry… I just had to fight. I just had to do something!" I said ashamed.

"I know you did Michael, but there are other ways to help besides fighting." Dr. Glass said. "Which you'll have to be doing from now on."

I looked at Dr. Glass. "What do you… you mean?" I asked. Dr. Glass's stare was unmoving so I looked at Ben, who wasn't looking me in the eye. "What do you mean?"

"I managed to fix you lung but barely." Dr. Glass began, "There is still a lot of damage in that area. Damage that will never fully heal as long as we're in this war with our fundamental medical tools. Michael I'm sorry, but you continuing to be a fighter just isn't possible anymore. You've damaged your body too much and you'll never be able to reach your physical peak."

I stared at Dr. Glass, breathing slowly and trying to keep my face calm. Absent mindedly I brought my hand to my damaged side and felt how tender the skin was. There were also a number of stitches there, underneath a cotton bandage. I then tried to move and breathe heavily but felt major discomfort everywhere. I fell back against the bed, trying not to cry again.

Dr. Glass walked over to my side, putting a comforting hand on my shoulder. She pulled out a bottle of pills and put them next to the light. Take two a day, once after breakfast and another after dinner. It will help with the pain; your recover will be based on how much you move. You'll be staying with Lourdes and I so you'll be leaving with us through the tunnel in about fifteen to twenty minutes." She looked me in the eye, "Michael I am truly sorry, but it is a miracle you're alive."

I nodded my head, not trust myself to say anything for fear my voice would crack. Dr. Glass walked away to the storage area to continue packing for our evacuation, leaving me alone with Ben.

"I'm sorry Michael." He said.

I breathed heavily, ignoring the discomfort, and just nodded my head.

"I told Dr. Glass that I'd stay with you though. Help her out and stuff." Ben continued.

I smiled, "Thanks Ben."

Ben looked really upset, more upset then he should actually be in my opinion. "Is something wrong Ben?" I asked.

"YOU!" Ben cried out, pointing at me, "You're my problem! It's my fault that your hurt! I could of protected you!"

"What are you talking about?" I asked, my breathing back under control and no longer stuttering.

"I should of protected you from that explosion Michael! I could of jumped in front of it and you could of run to the flag pole! I would have been fine because I'm a freak and my body would of healed itself! But you… you're done Michael. You don't have any more fighting days in you!" Ben shouted the last sentence as an accusation, and then he turned away from me to cry I think.

"Ben you had a job to do," I said, "You had to save us all with the frequencies. And you did do that!"

"I didn't save you." Ben muttered.

"Well then look at this as some divine justice for you." I argued, "I used you to get what I wanted, I hurt you to get what I wanted. And now I've paid for it Ben by nearly dying, only to live on without the one thing I want most." My statement mirrored my own internal thoughts as I tried to control my emotions. All I wanted was to become a fighter, but now that lost to me because I felt some sense of nobility to help Ben. Ben, the guy I had used the crap out of to get me to become a fighter. _'Karma's a Bitch.'_ I thought.

"This isn't divine justice! This is those aliens being the cruel, genocidal freaks that they are!" Ben shouted, fists clenched. "I hate them Michael… I hate them all. I want them all dead!"

"We all want them dead Ben." I said, shocked by Ben's tone. _'This is still the new Ben talking, the old Ben will come back soon.'_ I told myself.

It was quiet after that as neither of us were quite sure what to say. Finally Ben said something, "I'll forgive you for using me if you tell me one thing."

I looked at Ben, unsure what to expect. "Alright then." I said. I was laying in a clinic bed and had almost died, what did I have to lose?

"Why did it mean so much to you to become a fighter?" Ben asked, his voice betraying no emotion.

The question he asked wasn't something I was surprised to hear. I fact I had kind of expected it. Answering that meant indulging Ben in my dark secret, my secret desire that I tried to hide so well and then watched it disappear when I actually befriended Ben. But this was _Ben_, and he deserved the ugly truth.

"I wanted to help humanity," I said slowly, "but I was looking for a good way to die mostly. A way where my death would have some meaning."

Emotion rushed onto Ben's face and his stunned gaze forced me to look away from him. "You…" Ben stuttered, "You wanted to die?"

I nodded my head and Ben gasped, "I wanted to die, but not by an overdose or some kind of pathetic suicide. After everybody that died it seemed like a total waste for me to die without attempting to help out this world."

"Why?" Ben demanded, "Why would you want to do that to yourself?"

"Because I was alone in the world," I replied, "And don't say my aunt and uncle were there for me. My uncle was all for me running off and dying and my aunt wanted to deal with me as little as possible." I started to laugh, "I was like Harry Potter! Except no magic, more beatings, and no promise of a better tomorrow."

The atmosphere only got worse, a mix of my pity and bloody bandages with Ben's pain wasn't a good combination. Silence had fallen over us as I let the news sink in for Ben and waited for him to say something. Ben seemed to be at a loss, but finally asked the ultimate question.

"How did you parents die?"

I looked at Ben this time, seeing the angst and sadness clearly on his face. I smiled softly, unsure which one of us I was comforting. "They died protecting me."

I started at the beginning of all my nightmares for Ben. I told him about how I waited with my Mom and Dad for my uncle's RV to arrive, how the EMP went off, how my family and I found the wrecked RV, how we saved my horrendous relatives, how the Mech had appeared and started to destroy everything around it, how my dad sacrificed himself for us, how his blood sprayed over my body, and how I fainted on the bloodied grass. The retelling of the events made me feel like I was reliving them and soon I was immersed in my own hell…

_Cool water hit my face and I was brought back to reality._

_"Get up Michael!" I heard my mom scream, her voice clearly choked up and tears rolling down her face. "I won't let you die! Not you too!"_

_I groaned as my mom began shaking my body violently. "Mom?" I moaned out, to which she stopped shaking me and started to hug me and cry into my shoulders._

_"I'm so happy your alive!" She choked out, "I'm so happy!"_

_"Mom… Dad… he's" _

_"I know sweetie, I know. I know." She said, unable to stop herself from crying which brought tears to my own eyes. My dad was dead, an emptiness had entered me which made me feel half dead. I looked at my arms and saw that my dad's blood was still fresh on them. The image of my dad exploding into blood and seared guts flashed through my head and I threw myself away from mom so my vomit wouldn't hit her._

_My mom came over anyways and held me tightly. My stomach felt empty but I was still throwing up God knows what while shaking violently. When I finished my body was beyond weak, everything was spinning and my frail body wasn't able to handle itself. I wasn't able to process it anymore since my aunt came running into the room. It was only now I realized we had moved into a neighboring house, with us currently in the kitchen._

_"Samantha," My aunt said, desperation in her voice. "We have to go now! James pried open the backyard fence, we can take that to the back roads and escape from that monster!"_

_"No!" I pleaded hysterically, tears rolling down my cheeks, "We have to stay and bury dad!"_

_My aunt looked at me with annoyance, "There isn't enough of your father to bury."_

_Images flashed through my head and I started to cry and vomit again, "CINDY!" My mom cried, "HOW DARE YOU!"_

_"We need to get out of here damn it! We have to survive!" My aunt insisted, not paying attention to my mom's annoyed and rage filled look. From the backyard I could hear my uncle yelling for Aunt Cindy to hurry up. "Last chance Sam!" she said to us._

_My mom's face was as hard as stone, but she wasn't as lost in grief as I was. Slowly she got both of us up on our feet and we followed Aunt Cindy out to the back. When we stepped outside I could see and smell smoke, near and far, while also hearing people screaming from ranges of fear to tormented pain._

_The sounds made me stop moving, losing myself in my head. I could see my mom pleading with me to keep moving, but all I could hear were people screaming. I heard a new scream and I realized it was from an alien ship flying across the sky. It was gone quickly and soon houses a few blocks away exploded into clouds of blue and purple fire. More screams of suffering followed the bombing and the ground began to tremble around us, causing plant vases in the yard to fall around us._

_"Let's get a move on it!" My uncle shouted, his face filled with a mix of fear and rage. The explosion brought me out of my mini coma and I followed my mom to the fence which my uncle had pried open. It was a tight fit for the adults and Terry, but Bethany and I fit through easily with our skinny bodies. _

_We ran through the yard of the new house and out onto the other clock. This block was slightly better than the one my dad died on, but signs of chaos were still present. A car had crashed into a telephone poll, garbage was littered across several yards, and at the end of the street was a police car with broken windows and a trail of dark leading into one of the houses nearby._

_"More blood." I said to nobody in particular, fighting against the queasy feeling again. My mom heard me say that and put her arms around me. Bethany looked up at us holding each other and then ran up to hug us too. "Bethany come here." My uncle said. Bethany looked at us and then ran to her father, hugging him as her tears fell._

_"We're going to be ok." My mom said comfortingly, "We can get through anything. You can get through anything. Because you're strong Michael, even if you don't know it."_

_I was about to respond when there was an animalistic screech followed by human screams. There was a commotion and then there was only one scream with the animal one. The human screamed turned into a gurgled sound and a body went flying into sight from a house nearby, landing about fifteen yards in front of us. There was a sickening crack and the person died in a bloody pool with bones sticking out of their body, the gender was hard to tell due to the mutilation of the body._

_The screams from Bethany and Aunt Cindy only intensified when the creature appeared. It looked like a crab, with an insect head and armored body. Its body was green and limy with spikes coming from its back. It had two eyes from the looks of it, with an ugly retractable jaw underneath it like most insects. The most disturbing thing about the creature was the blood covering it, human blood. Both of the arms were drenched in red and one of the creatures legs was also covered in what looked like human skin and muscle. The jaw area also had red around it, possible from where the alien was eating._

_"We need to move now honey. Come on." My mom said, moving us in the opposite direction of the creature. Uncle James was smart enough to follow my mom's lead and my entire family started to walk in the opposite direction towards the police car. The alien creature moved closer to the mutilated corpse, its head looking at it with sick interest. It touched the corpse with its 'foot' and gave off a squeal when more blood burst from the body in a cloud of red._

_Bethany was about to cry out but my Uncle's hand covered her mouth in time, stifling her cry. We picked up our pace and luckily the creature turned its back to us as it continued to stare at the corpse. _

_Our luck didn't hold however as another human scream filled the air, but it didn't come from our group. It came from a young girl, probably a middle to late teenager in age, two houses away from the creature. We all looked at the house and saw a woman trying to quiet the girl with her. A lot of use that would do now._

_The creature turned around and screamed, moving faster than I thought possible. It was quickly beside the woman, who was screamed too as the creature grabbed her and lifted her neck to its mouth. It bit into her neck and blood flew out of the neck area, which only made the girl scream louder. The woman was then thrown to the ground by the creature who quickly raised its leg and smashed it into the woman skull, ending her life. Now Bethany was screaming._

_The creature turned to us and screeched, its arms held out like a challenging gladiator. "RUN!" My mom screamed, which we all started to do. The creature first turned to the girl who was crying and babbling now next to the dead woman, must have realized she wasn't a threat or something, and then ran after us._

_Uncle James, who was the farthest ahead turned around and stopped. My mom and I kept running though, her hand tightly wrapped around mine. We stopped though right next to the police car when Uncle James called out "Its gone!"_

_Our abrupt stop after that statement caused me to trip. My mom caught me before I hit the ground and helped me upright. She noticed something in the police car and moved to open the door, but stopped when that hellish screech rang out around the neighborhood. Bethany was screaming again and to be honest I felt like doing the same exact thing._

_The creature landed in front of us, between my mom and I and my extended family. My mom turned to me, "Michael ran now!"_

_"What?" I said shocked._

_"I said run now! NOW! And don't stop!" My mom cried, pushing me away from her and the monster I started to stumble back, not wanting to leave my mom who was once again trying to open the door to the police car._

_It turned first to Bethany and then eyed her entire family, looking at them hungrily. Terry and Bethany were now freely crying while Aunt Cindy looked like she was near tears herself. Uncle James was trying to look tough but failed too under the gaze of that monster. The creature raised its body up again and screamed but a voice cut through that scream, loud and slightly nervous._

_"HEY!" My mom screamed, running towards the creature. "GET AWAY FROM THEM!"_

_The creature turned around and cried out in pain as blood exploded from one of its legs, causing it to fall to the ground. My mom stumbled back herself, hitting the ground hard with a shotgun in hand. I realized that the shotgun was what my mom was trying to get out of the car and I felt pride swell up in me. 'My mom can use a shotgun!' I thought happily._

_Unfortunately I wasn't right about that statement. My mom wasn't trained in using a shotgun and wasn't ready for the recoil it delivered onto her chest. She was lying on the ground, gasping for breath, while trying to cock the gun again for a second use. The creature was getting back up, anger flashing across its shark like eyes. I looked directly at my extended family and shouted "HELP HER!"_

_My uncle did the exact opposite and forced his family to run the opposite direction of the creature. My mom looked up at me, "RUN!" She shouted and fired off another blast. The creature swerved its torso to the side, causing the shot to miss the creature entirely. My mom was no crawling backwards while trying to reload the shotgun with another round. Fear hit me hard when I realized she didn't know how to reload, and horror penetrated me deeply when the creature grabbed her with one of its claw like hands._

_It raised my mom up to eye level with itself and stared into her eyes. My mom raised the shotgun and tried to hit the creature with the butt of it, but the thing caught it in its other arm and threw it to the side. Silence descended over us as I stared at both of them, praying for a miracle, while they only stared at each other. The creature screamed and raised my mom above its head before it slashed her across the stomach with its claws, causing blood to come pouring out and hit the street with a sickening splat._

_I didn't hear myself screaming and didn't feel myself shaking or falling to my knees. I didn't feel the tears going down my eyes and didn't smell the stench of my mom's blood forming a pool underneath her dying body. I only heard the creature scream one more time before throwing my mom against the front of the police car. I also heard the crack in my mom's back as she hit the car and saw her roll forward into her own blood._

_I was paralyzed. I couldn't move, I couldn't think. My mind screamed at me to run but it wasn't translating properly to the rest of my body and I couldn't move. The creature walked past my mom and stood right in front of me. It looked at me with some sick interest and then lowered its hands to me as if to grab me. Its hand never touched me though as it exploding into a million pieces._

_The creature reeled back screaming and turned to the side. It didn't finish its second scream as a blast went off and half of the creatures face was blasted off as well. It fell back groaning and bleeding heavily, wiggled a little bit, and then went silent._

_I knew I had some of the creature's blood on me, I could now feel that running down my face. I turned slowly towards the direction where the creature had been looking and saw a police officer standing there, a shotgun in hand. Her uniform was torn and she had some bruising on her face along with a huge blot of blood on the front of her shirt which matched the color of her red, shoulder length hair. _

_She looked at me and lowered the shotgun, her face tired but friendly. "Are you ok?" She asked._

_I couldn't respond and when she began walking towards me I started to crawl backwards. "It's ok." She said, "I'm not going to hurt you."_

_'She's not going to hurt you.' I told myself, 'She's not going to hurt you.'_

_"I'm Officer Scully. What's your name?" she asked, still moving towards me._

_"Mi-Michael." I said, my voice making me sound like a four year old._

_"Michael. That's a nice name." She said, pulling something out of her back pocket. It was towel. "Here, you can use this to wipe the blood off your face."_

_I grabbed the towel and simply held onto it, wanting to believe that it could protect me like I thought it would when I was little. The officer pulled out a set of car keys from her pocket and turned off the alarm which went off when my mom hit the car. The thought of my mom sent bolts through my body and I was up and running towards my mom._

_"Hey wait!" The officer shouted but stopped when she saw my mom's body. I dropped to my knees, soaking them in her blood, and touched my mom's body._

_"M-M-Mom?" I said, feeling her neck. "It's Michael. Ar-are you ok?"_

_The officer was now standing next to me, grim and silent. She bent down touched me on the shoulder, but I shrugged her off. "Mom?"_

_"Michael-" the officer began._

_"NO!" I shouted at her, teary eyed. "SHE ISN'T DEAD! SHE CAN'T BE DEAD! SHE SAID SHE WOULDN'T DIE! SHE SAID SHE WAS STRONG! SHE SAID WE WERE STRONG!"_

_"And you are sweetie." My mom moaned. Both the officer and I recoiled in the shock as my face turned her face to look at me. A small smile was on her face and I felt so much better, even though half of her face was covered in her own blood._

_"MOM!" I cried out, moving forward to hug her. The officer stopped me and I wanted to scream at her but realized why she did that. My mom's body was a mess, with her back twisted in a direction that shouldn't work and her organs visible for the whole world to see. Something was poking out of her side, something based off its location I assumed was her rib._

_"Michael…" My mom said again._

_"I'm here Mom!" I cried, "I'm here!"_

_"But you- cough cough- you can't be." My mom said, coughing up blood. "You have to go, you have to survive!"_

_"We'll all survive together Mom! You and me! We'll live!" I pleaded._

_My mom smiled, "You're so sweet Michael. You're so sweet."_

_"MOM!" I shouted, "DON'T GO MOM! PLEASE DON'T GO! I DON'T WANT TO BE ALONE!" _

_My mom turned her head slightly away from me, something that seemed to take a lot of effort on her part. "Promise me…" She said, "Promise me that he'll be safe."_

_"What?" I said, turning to where my mom was looking and saw that my Uncle and Aunt had walked up with Terry and Bethany behind them. My aunt looked stunned along with her children but Uncle James's face was stern and harsh._

_"I can't promise that." He said. _

_"Promise me!" My mother shouted, "Both of you! You'll look after him!"_

_"We can't do-" my uncle began but was cut off by his wife._

_"We promise!" She said, "We promise!"_

_My mom smiled, "Thank you Cid. Thank you." My mom turned back to me, "Michael-Michael listen to me sweetie." I didn't want to because I knew what was going to happen when she stopped talking. "Michael look at me please."_

_I looked towards me mom slowly, seeing the pain on her face and her brave smile. "Mom please don't die!"_

_"It's too late for that Michael. I'm dying." My mom said calmly, "But I died to protect you, and that's what makes this bearable."_

_"NOT FOR ME!" I shouted._

_"I know, and I hope you can forgive me for what I did." My mom said, a tear coming down her eye. "But I needed to protect you. Your father died to protect us, and now I die to protect you."_

_I wanted to shout a retort but I couldn't force any words out of my mouth and burst into tears and moans. My mom grabbed my hand weakly, "Be strong Michael. You're strong… you're strong even if you don't know it. Never lose faith Michael. Never lose faith." My crys had become louder and I was shaking uncontrollably and my mom spent the last of her energy to hold me tighter. "I'm so sorry Michael. I love you."_

_My mom's grip loosened and her hand fell to the ground. I cried out something, blabbing it out more likely. Just like that girl down the street if she was still there. I looked at my extended family, my new family, and saw my new 'parents' had stone faces. They were unprepared to take on another child and wouldn't ever fully adjust to having me around I knew. I let out a delirious laugh at that realization. The greater realization that came with it too._

_I was alone._

_I was alone in this new world of hell._

When I finished my story tears were rolling down my face again and through the darkness I could see Ben's face was filled with shock and sorrow.

"Michael I am so sorry." He said.

"Thanks." I said, sniffing and wiping away the tears.

Neither of us said anything. I was shocked though when Ben got up and hugged me in my bed, holding me tightly. "I'm sorry." He said again.

I laughed nervously, not wanting to cry into my best friends shoulder. "Tha-thanks." I said again. I didn't stop the tears though and actually ending crying into Ben's arms, happy that I finally had somebody that cared about me again.

**Later**

Ben had left the clinic to go talk to his brother who had returned ahead of Weaver and the rest of the fighters. I know his dad with Hal and that they were probably having a Mason family moment so I was ok when Ben left. I needed time to myself anyways to process everything.

I was no longer a fighter. That sucked. I had revealed to somebody else how my parents had died, which made me feel like crap. That sucked too. But what felt good was knowing that I had Ben as my friend again, and that my friend was more than adept at taking care of me.

I was smiling when Dr. Glass came by and was looking at me curiously. "I'm glad to see that you're in good spirits again Michael." Dr. Glass said. She sounded and looked really low spirited herself.

"I'm hanging in there." I said.

"Well come on, let's get you in this wheelchair. We're moving the last of the people through the tunnel to meet up with the rest of the 2nd Mass." Dr. Glass said, pulling up a wheelchair with Lourdes. It was slow but Dr. Glass finally got me into the wheelchair and started to push me out of the clinic, which was stripped bare of all the medical supplies.

We were half way to the tunnel when Ben came running up. "Hey, how you feeling?" He asked me.

"Better." I replied, "They don't have any ice cream though. That would of helped. Aren't hospitals suppose to have ice cream."

"Probably." Dr. Glass said, to tired for jokes.

Ben smiled at me, "If you guys want I can take him to the tunnel. I'm meeting Hal there anyways.

Dr. Glass didn't seem as phased as I was too hear that Hal was staying here. "Ok, I'll head back to the Clinic to finish up."

She left and Ben took her place pushing me. I looked up at Ben, "Why's Hal back?"

"It's a long story." Ben said, "But just know that Weaver and the others are attacking the alien structure now and my Dad ran off to help them with them."

"Are you serious?" I asked.

"Yep, that's my dad." Ben said, a slight edge in his voice. "Always willing to run head first into danger."

"Ya but he always comes out ok." I said.

Ben laughed, "Ok true. Still, I wish he didn't have to leave us all the time."

"He has to though, he has a responsibility." I said, "That doesn't mean he doesn't care about you any less though."

"I know, but still. Actions speak louder than words I guess is all I'm trying to get at." Ben said.

We reached the tunnel and followed slowly behind a group of fighters, who were still cheering about the victory a few hours ago. Some of them looked at us with just a passing glance, but some eyes lingered on us. They were mostly on Ben though, and now of them really screamed "thanks for saving us Ben! We love you!"

Then I heard that word muttered, that horrible word 'razor back' and knew that what Ben did didn't matter that much to other people. We moved past the group of fighters, who let us through, and went through the tunnel.

"Some people think I was actually trying to help the skitters." Ben murmured, "They thought that I was helping them. How could they think that?"

"Some people are just idiots Ben." I said, "I'm sorry Ben but I don't think you could get people to love you. But you can probably get them to tolerate you at least."

That made Ben laugh, "At least your back to your normal self. Glad your insulting me again."

"Oh right. Sorry." I said, laughing myself.

It was silent in the tunnel as we reached the end. Luckily there was a ramp and Ben pushed me up that towards the darkness outside. "What do you think is going to happen now?" Ben asked me.

"I don't know." I responded truthfully. "Hopefully we'll win at the structure and that will stop the aliens for a bit."

"Ya that would be nice." Ben said.

"It's really just an uncertain future Ben. Always has been since those aliens showed up."

"I'd like a little more certainty." Ben said slyly.

"I know. But hey, at least you have me." I said.

Ben looked at me funny. "Yes, you and your broken body. What a relief." We both began to laugh even though it was incredible stupid. We finally reached the exit and went out into the cold air. Besides that I noticed that most of the stars in the sky were visible, lighting up everything in sight.

I smiled, happy to see that some things (like the stars) never changed.

"I don't know what to expect in the future Ben," I said, "But I'm glad that you're my friend."

"I'm glad you're my friend too." Ben said, honestly filled in his voice.

I smiled, once again glad that I had somebody to face the terrible future with. And was going to be terrible, it was going to get a lot worse before things got better.

* * *

><p><em>To say that I expected this story to take this long is an utter lie. I didn't expect this story to almost take a year, but it did. I want to thank all my readers and reviewers who have hung with me this entire time.<em>

_There were originally plans for a sequel that would follow the Season 2 storyline like this story did Season 1, but I got too annoyed with the 2nd Season and didn't finish it. Seriously, let down after let down. If you're interested, you can see my full rant on my profile. In my head cannon, Michael in his weaken state, would have been one of the countless members of the 2nd Mass who perished while they tried to flee the Boston region. This death affected Ben deeply, leading him to follow the path of needless teenage angst we see from him in Season 2._

_So, with that in mind, thanks again for sticking with this story till the end. I hope you enjoyed it! And for the last time ever, **PLEASE REVIEW!**_


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